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.
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SLA occupation of school in Poonakari affects students

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 November 2010, 17:38 GMT]
More than a hundred students of Vigneswara Viththiyaalayam in Poonakari in Jaffna have to walk nearly ten km to attend schools as their school is occupied by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) which had converted the school as its base, Ki’linochchi Education officials said. The same situation prevails in Vanni too where many schools are occupied by SLA and the related authorities had done nothing to enable the schools to function, they added. Namal Rajapaksa, the son of Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa and parliamentarian had been recently visiting schools in Vanni laying foundation stones and planting trees in the schools but nothing had followed his campaign to restore the schools to normalcy, parents in Vanni said.
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SL government allocates land for star hotel in Jaffna to private company

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 August 2010, 08:09 GMT]
Sri Lanka government has allocated land in Chiruththeevu in the islets of Jaffna occupied by Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) to a private company to build a five star hotel, sources in Jaffna said. SLN continues to refuse permission to local fishermen to fish in Chiruththeevu area which includes Ma'ndaitheevu, Poonakari and Jaffna lagoon.
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SLA interrogates resettled people in K’linochchi following JVP delegation’s visit

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 July 2010, 15:14 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers interrogated the residents of Kavuthaarimunai in Poonakari in Ki’linochchi Friday immediately after a delegation of Sinhala Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) had visited them, Socialist Youth Association (SYA), a front organization of the JVP, claimed in a media statement. The delegation met the resettled people to learn first hand about the true conditions under which they were living.
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NPC cuts funds to Vanni local bodies

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 July 2010, 05:44 GMT]
Northern Provincial Council (NPC) is alleged of cutting funds allocated to the local government bodies in Vanni in great measures while these institutions are not in a position to collect revenue from people who had been uprooted and just resettled in Vanni, sources in Vanni said. It is further accused that NPC officials spend the above funds on needless projects to satisfy the whims of Northern Province Governor Major Gen. G. A. Chandrasiri and Sri Lanka government.The Governor is expected to hold a meeting Monday with the officials of the local government bodies in the North.
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Naakappaduvan-ku’lam

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 July 2010, 18:47 GMT]
The pond named after Naakan of the Paduvar community
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SLA continues fishing ban in resettled areas in Vanni

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 July 2010, 07:07 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) continues its ban on fishing in the areas in Vanni where the uprooted civilians were resettled recently, allowing them access only to a space of 200 m from the shore, fishermen in Vanni said. Meanwhile, Sinhalese fishermen from South are permitted by SLA to freely fish with their trawlers in Mullaiththeevu seas, they complained. Despite Fisheries Minister’s assurance that the Southern fishermen will not fish in northern seas, they are welcomed by SLA to fish with their trawlers, they said.
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Sand dunes scooped at Ma'n'niththalai

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 June 2010, 07:56 GMT]
Similar to the plunder of limestone in the Jaffna Peninsula, agents of Colombo are now engaged in scooping the sand dunes of the Ma’n’niththalai sandbar, which is of immense natural beauty and of archaeological as well as tourist potentiality, sources in Poonakari said. The fragile ecology of the densely populated Jaffna Peninsula is deliberately destroyed by corporates in the construction industry and by their contractors, academics in Jaffna said. The plunder of resources in Jaffna and Vanni are divided among Douglas Devandanda and Namal Rajapaksa respectively. Meanwhile percentage of benefits from large-scale 'development' contracts goes to Basil Rajapaksa and the income extracted by the military goes to Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, informed circles said.
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Sri Lanka one country, unitary state: Namal Rajapaksa, in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 June 2010, 16:38 GMT]
“Sri Lanka is one country and a unitary state,” Namal Rajapakse, MP and son of President Mahinda Rajapaksa said speaking at the event where Minister Douglas Devananda officially inaugurated a boat service Sunday around 11:00 a.m at Ma’n’niththalai jetty in Poonakarai, sources in Jaffna said. “Douglas is a model person to the Tamils of the country as he sets an example by cooperating with the government in the development of the whole country,” he added. Meanwhile, civil society circles in Jaffna said that Namal Rajapaksa had praised Douglas Devananda in an effort to pacify him as Namal Rajapaksa had brought five of his own boats to be engaged in the boat service between Kurunakar and Poonakari in the project which was initiated by minister Douglas Devananda.
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Namal Rajapaksa’s men monopolize Jaffna-Poonakari boat service

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 June 2010, 05:40 GMT]
The new boat service between Kurunakar and Poonakari in the North which is to be inaugurated Sunday by Namal Rajapaksa, son of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, is to be entirely serviced by boats owned by him, sources in Jaffna said. Colombo government and the powerful men from South are exploiting all possible sources of income in Jaffna peninsula, Tamil circles in Jaffna commented.
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Resettled people in Vanni suffer increasing SLA harassment

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 June 2010, 04:30 GMT]
Disappearances, sexual abuse and extortion by occupying Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers in Vanni where people have been allowed to resettle have increased and the victims are helpless as there are no authorities to complain against the violence except to the SLA in Vanni, a government officer in Vanni said. Meanwhile, SLA earmarks properties with ‘Reserved for SLA’ notice boards and the owners of the marked properties have to pay large sums of money to claim their properties back, a worker of an NGO in Vanni said.
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Boat service to begin between Jaffna and Poonakari in Vanni

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 June 2010, 20:49 GMT]
Government authorities in Jaffna announced that a boat service is to be inaugurated 13 June between Kurunakar jetty in Jaffna and Ma’n’niththu'rai jetty in Poonakari. This boat service is being started to enable public to travel between Jaffna and Vanni quickly, Northern Province Governor, Major Gen. G. A. Chandrasiri said.
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SLA constructs big bases in Vanni

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 April 2010, 11:22 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) occupying Vanni without allowing the uprooted civilians from resettling in their homes is busy engaged in constructing big bases in strategic areas in Vanni, sources in Vanni said. Meanwhile, the small numbers of civilians permitted to resettle in some areas in Vanni are subjected to harassment by SLA. Armed group of men forcibly enter their houses in the nights where there are young women, the sources further said. SLA soldiers do not permit the civilians to move freely in the nights. Even during day time they are forced to carry their Sri Lankan National Identity Cards.
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Tortured Jaffna undergrad commits suicide

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 April 2010, 20:21 GMT]
26-year-old Balasingham Karunanithi, a third year student of the Faculty of Management in Jaffna University, arrested and tortured by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) when he was held in a Vavuniyaa detention camp after the war on Vanni, committed suicide in Jaffna at a house in Naachchimaar Koayiladi where he was staying, sources in Jaffna said. Karunanithi is the fourth Vanni undergraduate of Jaffna University to commit suicide due to mental derangement resulting from their detention in SLA detention centres in Vavuniyaa, the sources added. A medical faculty student and two first year girl students of Jaffna University had committed suicide after the final offensive on Vanni.
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No IDP resettlement in 57 GS divisions in Ki'linochchi district - GA

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 March 2010, 06:59 GMT]
No resettlement of internally displaced families has taken place in fifty-seven Village Officer Divisions that come under the Assistant Government Agent divisions of Karaichchi, Ka'ndaavalai and Pachchilaipaa'l'li in Ki'linochchi district, according to Government Agent Ms .S. Ketheeswaran to media.
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SLA soldiers obstruct ITAK candidate from campaigning in Ki'linochchi

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 March 2010, 16:00 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers manning the check posts along the roads do not allow him to go the places where Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) are resettled in Ki'linochchi district, Sivagnanam Sritharan, the candidate contesting Ki'linochchi district in Ilangkai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK) ticket and the principal of Ki'linochchi Maha Viththiyaalayam said, in the press meet held Friday at the ITAK office on Martin Road in Jaffna where the ITAK election manifesto was released. He was forced by the soldiers to reveal the names of the persons he wants to meet and as this would put them in danger he had not given their names, Sritharan said.
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Magistrate courts to be built in Vanni where IDPs are yet to be resettled

[TamilNet, Sunday, 07 March 2010, 11:36 GMT]
Sri Lanka government is actively engaged in building police stations and magistrate courts in the districts of Ki’linochchi and Mullaiththeevu in Vanni where Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) are yet to be resettled, sources in Vanni said. Secretary to the Ministry of Justice made a sudden visit Wednesday to Ki’linochchi and Mullaitheevu with the view to find locations for the magistrate courts to be built. He was accompanied by Buddhist Priest Rev. Athamba Buthara Kalyanasitha Thero and the magistrates of Vavuniyaa, Mannaar and the magistrates appointed to Ki’linochchi and Mullaiththeevu, the sources added.
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SLA relaxes travel restriction in Valikaamam North HSZ

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 February 2010, 02:49 GMT]
Newly appointed Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Jaffna Commander, Major. Gen. Kathurasinghe said Tuesday that travel restrictions in Valikaamam North in SLA High Security Zone (HSZ) have been relaxed so that people in Jaffna could travel freely, participating as chief guest in a Marathon race event held in Jaffna town, sources in Jaffna said. But Welfare Organizations representing Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) said that this relaxation is mainly for the benefit of Buddhist devotees from the South visiting Naakatheepa Buddhist temple in Nainaatheevu and the Saiva temples in Maaviddapuram and Keerimalai and that it has not brought any relief to the IDPs who insist on being allowed to resettle in their own houses in the HSZ.
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Government plans election-rigging in Jaffna, say Fonseka supporters

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 January 2010, 03:59 GMT]
Although the delivery of polling cards ended on Monday postmasters in Jaffna have been unofficially instructed to continue to issue the cards by high government authorities, according to postal department officials who wish to remain anonymous. IN addition, Sri Lanka's Minister Douglas Devananda and former Inspector General of Police, Chandra de Silva, are engaged in activities aiming at rigging the votes of people in K’linochchi district which falls under Jaffna electoral division, Sarath Fonseka’s supporters in Jaffna alleged.
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No likelihood of Vanni IDPs being settled east of A9 road

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 January 2010, 04:01 GMT]
Sri Lanka government is actively engaged in resettling Vanni IDPs along A9 road from Oamanthai to Maangku'lam in an attempt to show the outside world that it is resettling Vanni IDPs in their own places, in view of the forthcoming presidential election, sources in Jaffna said. Resettlement in areas located east of A9 road in Vanni will not be possible in the near future, according to sources in Northern Province Governor's office. The IDPs taken to areas along A9 road from Oamanthai to Maangku'lam have been only allowed to live in places close to Sri Lanka Army (SLA) camps and sentry posts while neither the government nor NGOs provide them with any assistance, thee sources said.
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