‘Nazi-style registration of civilians in Jaffna’

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 February 2011, 12:08 GMT]
The occupying SL military in Jaffna is directly engaged in registration of individuals and families in the Jaffna peninsula in recent times. Everyday, covering area by area, the SL military is distributing forms to collect information and is insisting of family photographs along with children to be given to them. The activity of the SL military, reminding the Nazi practice before the Holocaust, creates terror in the minds of the people in Jaffna, said a human rights activist in Jaffna. Meanwhile, undeclared curfew is imposed in Jaffna by the SL military and police, who have brought the street movement of people almost to an end after 6:00 p.m. by harassing them through numerous checkpoints after dusk.
Full story >>

Forced recruitment of traders by Colombo to contest elections in Jaffna, Vanni

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 January 2011, 22:29 GMT]
Colombo’s terror campaign and abductions in Jaffna and Vanni now aim at forced recruitment of traders to contest local bodies elections under Mahinda Rajapaksa’s SLFP ticket, sources in Jaffna said. In recent days, many leaders of traders associations in Jaffna were abducted by SL Army officers coming to their houses and were taken to Colombo. They were not told why were they abducted and where were they being taken. They were later released in Colombo after forcefully getting signatures from them to contest elections in Jaffna and Vanni, under the SLFP. The traders said they didn’t want to contest but were afraid of their lives. Meanwhile, R. Ankajan, SLFP coordinator in Jaffna, is ‘recruiting’ university students to campaign in the elections.
Full story >>

Rajapaksa skips 're-reopening' of Vasaavi'laan Central College

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 January 2011, 01:19 GMT]
Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa skipped 're-reopening' Vasaavi'laan Central College Sunday. The plaque had his name, the invitation was in his name, but the renovated hall of Vasaavi'laan Central College was again re-opened by SL minister Douglas Devananda and SL colonial governor Chandrasiri. They were the people who re-opened it in September last year. Earlier, Mr. Rajapaksa reportedly expressed his dissatisfaction of their act of re-opening the school in a hurry as the conditions were not conducive. Only a part of the college uprooted to Urumpiraay in the last two decades has been shifted back to the locality.
Full story >>

Environment endangering life in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 January 2011, 00:31 GMT]
News reports from the south of the island, Saturday, said that Colombo government had yielded to the protests of fishermen and Church in the south, and had dropped a project to have sea planes in the Negombo lagoon. The fishermen in and around Negombo feared affliction to fish catch by the sea plane project. But on the same day, a budding young environmentalist having concern for the sand dunes and the drinking water of his people was shot dead in Jaffna. SL military intelligence occupying Jaffna and paramilitary are suspected. An academic in Jaffna brings out the environmental background of the issue.
Full story >>

Terror campaign in Jaffna: abducted youth tortured and beheaded

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 December 2010, 21:27 GMT]
Mahendran Thiruvarudchelvam, known as Chelvam, abducted 9 days ago was tortured and beheaded as evidenced by his remains reaching Jaffna Teaching Hospital. Even though initial reports said that he had been abducted for a ransom of 8 million, his background and prevailing terror campaign in the SL-military-occupied Jaffna point to deeper motives behind his killing, human rights activists in Jaffna said. Mr. Chelvam, 28-year-old, and father of a child, was living in Vanni to the end of the war, spent some time in the internment camp and was released for resettlement. He returned to his native place Meesaalai North near Kanakan-pu'liyadi and started doing business as a vehicle dealer. The former residents of Vanni, whether they are in captivity or released, are viewed by the occupying military and paramilitary as objects for exploitation and then extermination.
Full story >>

Abducted vehicle-dealer found dead in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 December 2010, 16:50 GMT]
A 28-year-old Tamil male from Thenmaraadchi, Jaffna, who was abducted 9 days ago, was recovered dead from a lone area close to Kanakanpu’liyadi junction, Wednesday, initial reports from the area said. Two men, who had come to the residence of the victim, Mahendran Selvam, a vehicle dealer had took him with them last Monday evening. Thereafter, anonymous callers phoned the victim’s parents who were searching for him and demanded 8 million rupees to release Mr. Mahendran. The killing comes at a time when a terror campaign is let loose in the peninsula.
Full story >>

Iluppaik-kadavai

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 December 2010, 01:32 GMT]
The Iluppai tree locality to pass through
Full story >>

Gunmen open fire at Hindu chief priest, sons in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 December 2010, 18:17 GMT]
The Chief Priest of Murukamoorththi Temple in Changkaanai of Valikaamam and his two sons were fatally injured Saturday evening when unknown gunmen, who attempted to rob the temple, opened fire on them. 56-year-old Niththiyantha Sharma, the chief priest and 32-year-old Sivananda Sharma and 27-year-old Jegananda Sharma, were rushed to Jaffna Teaching Hospital and admitted to the Intensive Care Unit, medical sources in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, civilian movement has been heavily restricted in Changkaanai by the Sri Lankan military that has rounded up the area, residents said. Journalists are denied access to the area. Recently, a temple musician playing Naathasvaram at a temple in A'laveddi in Valikaamam was also fired at by gunmen.
Full story >>

SLA guns down trauma affected male in Thenmaraadchi

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 December 2010, 12:58 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army soldiers on A9 Road opened fire on an uprooted Tamil along the A9 road Friday afternoon near Puththoor junction in Meesaalai. The victim was a psychologically affected male due to the war last year. The soldiers harassed him prompting the victim to attack a soldier and gunned him down, civilians in the area said.
Full story >>

Colombo covers up bank robbery by Sinhala gang in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 November 2010, 10:44 GMT]
Sri Lankan police authorities are trying to cover up an attempted bank robbery by a three-member Sinhala robbers at Chaavakachcheari branch of the state-owned National Savings Bank Sunday morning. While Police in Chaavakachcheari said they had arrested one of the the robbers, a Sinhala man from South, based on surveilance camera monitoring and were searching for the other two robbers in his team, the police in Colombo at a press conference twisted the facts by saying that the arrested robber was from Ki'linochchi.
Full story >>

SDC hands over completed building to Education Department in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 November 2010, 16:20 GMT]
Officials from the Switzerland Embassy in Colombo rushed to Jaffna Tuesday to open a school building built by Swiss Development Corporation (SDC) in Ma’ravanpulavu in Thenmaraadchi avoiding the standing instruction by Sri Lanka government to all Government and Non-government Organizations to invite its ministers and military officials to any public or ceremonial event held by them, sources in Jaffna said. The building was handed over to the Jaffna Education Department by the visiting Swiss Embassy officials. Northern Province Governor Major Gen. G. A. Chandrasiri, SL minister Douglas Devananda and his party parliamentarian Athavan are alleged of compelling the NGOs and voluntary organizations to invite them as chief guests to the opening of the development projects completed by them.
Full story >>

SLA active in grabbing strategic lands in North

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 November 2010, 14:54 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) authorities in Ki’linochchi have threatened 18 Tamil families in Irathinapuram where they were each given 5 acres of land to live in 1994 by Sri Lanka government for which they have the documents proving ownership. SLA now claims that a Sinhala school had been located in the said area and therefore the land belongs to the government. SLA further says that it wants the land to be used as cattle grazing ground, the families said. Similarly, SLA officials in the Achchuveali camp have claimed areas in Puththoor and Vaatharavaththai in Valikaamam East saying that a Sinhala school called Panjaseeva and a Buddhist temple had been functioning in the said area. A military establishment and Sinhala colony at strategic Vaatharavaththai will check free movement of Tamils among the sectors of Valikaamam, Vadamaraadchi and Thenmaraadchi regions of the Jaffna peninsula.
Full story >>

Family man injured in explosion in Thenmaraadchi

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 November 2010, 08:49 GMT]
An unidentified device exploded Friday in Thenmaraadchi injuring a family man who was collecting firewood in his village Ketpali, sources in Jaffna said. Though Sri Lanka government claims to have cleared most of Jaffna peninsula of landmines persons continue to be injured and killed caught in blasts. The device is suspected to be an unexploded shell head fired during the war lying hidden.
Full story >>

Military fortresses and colonisation in Jaffna choke Tamils, threaten India

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 November 2010, 10:26 GMT]
The selection of locations for building new military fortresses and for colonising Sinhalese in the Jaffna peninsula is sinisterly schemed by colonial Sri Lanka to permanently squeeze the Tamil heartland. Casual visitors don’t perceive it. Tamils of collaborative politics helplessly defend it. Indian policy planners of habitual bungling compare it with what they do in Kashmir, tribal belt and northeast India and agree with it. They think that if the nation of Eezham Tamils is permanently erased and if they get one or two harbours there that is enough for the security of India. The military cum colonisation complexes come up with the full blessings of India and with Chinese material help. But eventually they are going to be trained on India, said an academic in Jaffna, citing the complexes that squeeze the peninsula at strategic locations.
Full story >>

Assassinated TNA parliamentarian Raviraj remembered in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 November 2010, 05:15 GMT]
Hundreds of people participated in the fourth anniversary memorial event of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Nadaraja Raviraj held Sunday around 3:30 p.m in Va’ra’ni in Thenmaraadchi. Professor Kathasamy, Dean of the Science Faculty in Jaffna University and a close friend of Raviraj, delivered the memorial speech while former TNA parliamentarians, Selvarajah Gajendran and Ms. Pathmini Sithamparanathan offered flowers and paid tribute to Raviraj, sources in Thenmaraadchi said. Raviraj had been conferred with the title Maamanithar (Great Human being) by Velupillai Pirapaharan, the leader of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
Full story >>

Resettled families in Jaffna peninsula abandoned by SL government

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 September 2010, 05:56 GMT]
Non-government Organizations in Jaffna peninsula accuse Sri Lanka government to have abandoned most of the uprooted families resettled in Jaffna peninsula without providing them adequate assistance for rehabilitation. 82,000 uprooted persons had been resettled in Jaffna peninsula so far, according to Jaffna Secretariat statistics. Meanwhile, nearly 100,000 persons uprooted from Valikaamam North High Security Zone of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) twenty years ago continue to stay with their relatives, friends and in camps not allowed by SLA to resettle in their own properties.
Full story >>

SLA obstructs resettlement in Vadamaraadchi East

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 September 2010, 05:13 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has not permitted the families uprooted from Vadamaraadchi brought Thursday morning from Raamaavil and Kudaththanai camps in Thenmaraadchi to be resettled in their houses. SLA has instructed the families to stay in temporary interim camps in Vadamaraadchi East until their houses are renovated, Jaffna District Secretariat sources said. The families, now lodged in government buildings under the control of SLA, complain that they are unable to engage in fishing which is their main livelihood.
Full story >>

Man sentenced to death in Jaffna High Court

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 August 2010, 17:00 GMT]
Jaffna High Court Judge S. Paramarajah Wednesday sentenced to death a man accused of abducting, robbing jewelry from and killing a young woman from Meesaalai in Kodikaamam in Thenmaraadchi, after nearly a period of eleven years since the case was first filed against him, sources in Jaffna said. The accused, held in Kandy Bogampara prison, was brought to Jaffna to face the trial.
Full story >>

Sacked SL Deputy Minister Mervin Silva visits North

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 August 2010, 07:16 GMT]
Mervin Silva, the Sri Lanka Deputy Minister sacked from his post by President Mahinda Rajapaksa for tying an officer of Samurdhi Bank to a tree, paid an unexpected visit to Jaffna and Vanni Sunday and Monday, sources in Vanni said. Mervin Silva, who spent most of his time in the North visiting important Sri Lanka Army (SLA) bases in Vanni meeting key officers, was given top security protection befitting a cabinet minister, sources in Vanni said. Mervin Silva, said to be a close friend of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, is expected to be offered a high position in the Rehabilitation Ministry for the North, political observers in Jaffna said.
Full story >>

SLA refuses to open key roads in Jaffna peninsula

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 August 2010, 05:22 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) occupying Jaffna peninsula continues to refuse to open the key roads which it had closed for public use despite repeated requests by governemnt departments, NGOs and public organizations, sources in Jaffna said. The same situation prevails in allowing uprooted families to settle in their properties appropriated by SLA as High Security Zone (HSZ) in Valikaamam North. It is alleged that the conflict of interests in these two matters between Northern Province Governor, Major. Gen. G. A. Chandarasiri and SLA Jaffna Commander, Major. Gen. Mahinda Kathurusinghe is the cause of the issues.
Full story >>