Arundhati Roy: "Colossal humanitarian tragedy"

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 March 2009, 00:52 GMT]
Pointing an accusing finger at the Indian Government for silence on the unfolding tragedy in Sri Lanka, Arundhati Roy, writer and activisit, in an article appearing in Times of India says, "while the killing continues, while tens of thousands of people are being barricaded into concentration camps, while more than 200,000 face starvation, and a genocide waits to happen, there is dead silence from this great country [India]. It’s a colossal humanitarian tragedy. The world must step in. Now. Before it’s too late."
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Eyewitness account on Vavuniyaa internment camps

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 February 2009, 11:14 GMT]
"Now, what is happening here is genocide in many forms. Needless to say scattering people all over to unknown and unfamiliar places will ultimately lead to a weak population and result in damages done to our culture, education, and relationships. I can foresee a maimed Tamil generation with no hope in the future. The international community can make statements. But none will pay heed. For me the future looks dark and gloomy," reveals a letter written by a professional eyewitness, who visited the barbed-wired internment camps and hospital in Vavuniyaa couple of days ago.
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Tamil trader, family missing in Mannar

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 February 2009, 13:23 GMT]
A Tamil trader Rasiah Gopal, 37, is reported missing with his wife Ambika, 35, and his three month old baby girl since February 5 from their residence located behind an Amman Temple in Uppukulam in Mannaar district. Tension prevailes in the area following the disappearance of this family. Neighbors rushed to their residence and found all doors open, and fear that the family may have been abducted, civil sources said.
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‘Allow food, medicine, international mercy mission to Vanni’ – civil society groups

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 January 2009, 12:17 GMT]
A groups of Sri Lankan civil society organizations Thursday expressed alarm over the fast deepening humanitarian crisis in the Vanni and in a joint statement called on the Sri Lankan government to allow the “urgent delivery of food and medicine to the Mullaitivu area, …. the passage of medical convoys … and the [Sri Lankan] security forces respect areas which are demarcated as safe zones.” They also called for an “international mission of mercy immediate access to the Vanni to enable an accurate assessment of the humanitarian and protection needs of the people”. The They also protested reports of violence and abuse in the detention camps where people who fled the warzones are being held by the Sri Lankan military.
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IC urged to act on humanitarian grounds to safeguard civilians

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 January 2009, 12:45 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has cornered civilians in overcrowded areas in the suburbs of Puthukkudiyiruppu (PTK) town, according to sources in Vanni. While artillery shells exploding in densely populated makeshift settlements have caused several civilian casualties, civilians are fleeing from indiscriminate bombardment from air and ground are forced to seek shelters throughout the day, civil sources from Vanni said. IDPs' representatives express fear that those who fall into the hands of SLA units are likely to be forcibly transported under close military supervision to detention centre style camps at locations isolated from mainstream communities, as evidenced in Mannaar and in areas north of the recently SLA-occupied Elephant Pass.
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Mannaar police detains 6 fishermen, 1 civilian

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 January 2009, 10:50 GMT]
Six fishermen from Mannar were arrested by Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) on Naachchikkudaa seas and are being detained by Detention Order (DO). A seventh youth was arrested by Mannaar police in a search conducted in his house Wednesday when a sticker of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Forest Department was found in the house, the police claimed.The fishermen are from Mannaar Thoadave’li, Joseph Vaz Nakar.
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Tamil prisoners stripped naked, beaten by Sinhala Guards

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 January 2009, 01:04 GMT]
Seven Tamil and Muslim suspects detained in Anuradhapura prison filed complaints at the Mannaar Court Monday that five Sinhala thugs brought from outside and about ten other prison guards stripped the seven men naked and beat them with batons inside Anuradhapura prison Saturday and Sunday, legal sources in Mannar said.
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SLA shelling blocks ambulances, 2 injured in convoy

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 January 2009, 09:56 GMT]
Two persons who accompanied with the convoy of ambulances from Puthukkudiruppu to Vavuniyaa were wounded when Sri Lanka Army (SLA) fired artillery shells at Mannaaka'ndal Friday morning, shortly after two ambulances left Puthukkudiyiruppu, medical authorities said. Two ambulances with 13 civilians with serious injuries, being transferred from Tharmapuram and Puthukkudiyiruppu hospitals to Vavuniyaa hospital, after getting clearance through the ICRC, were forced to turn back as the SLA stepped up artillery fire on the road.
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Civil society decries internment of Vanni families in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 January 2009, 13:53 GMT]
Sri Lanka military and Police in Kopaay are keeping more than 155 members of 60 families who arrived in Jaffna as refugees from Vanni in a newly established camp in Kopaay Teachers Training College without basic facilities and without any freedom of movement, civil society sources in Jaffna said.
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Tamil civilian hacked to death in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 December 2008, 14:07 GMT]
The body of a Tamil civilian with cut injuries was recovered Wednesday night in Keeri area along main road in Thaalvupaadu in Mannar district. The body has been handed over to the Mannaar general hospital for postmortem examination, sources said.
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International media, human rights watchdogs lopsided - Jaffna MP

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 November 2008, 20:39 GMT]
"The Colombo government is embarked upon a killing spree of children and women in refugee camps who are already victims of war, displacement, cyclone and floods. This act of 'state terrorism' is in what way less deplorable than the Mumbai killings, for failing to attract condemnation and action from the International Community," asks Padmini Sithamparanathan, Tamil National Alliance MP for Jaffna.
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Body with gunshot injuries found in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 November 2008, 18:20 GMT]
The body of an unidentified male person with gunshot injuries was found along Mannaar-Thaalvupaadu main road Saturday morning. The Mannar police rushed to the site to hold inquiry, and transferred the body to the Mannaar general hospital.
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LTTE planes drew Indian embassy gunfire as Rajapaksa moved to bunker- report

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 November 2008, 23:02 GMT]
Indian gunners in the Indian embassy compound in Colombo “fired relentlessly” at the LTTE aircraft that were returning to Vanni after bombing on the Kelanitissa power station Tuesday, a Sri Lankan press report said Sunday. Quoting reliable sources, the Lakbima newspaper also reported that Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse was ushered into a special bunker during the air raid ‘purely as a precaution’’. Meanwhile, the Sunday Times said the LTTE had used a new kind of bomb on the Army Headquarters in Tha'l'laadi, Mannaar and that Sri Lankan jet’s missile was unable to ‘lock on’ to the LTTE plane.
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British statement fails to condemn Sri Lanka - BTF

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 September 2008, 10:43 GMT]
The Tamils in UK feel confused by a British statement that acknowledges the apparent recognition by the GoSL of its responsibility to provide humanitarian assistance to civilians affected by the conflict and its continued co-ordination with humanitarian agencies, at a time when foreign aid workers of the UN and International Non-Governmental Organisations have been expelled from Vanni by the government of Sri Lanka, said a statement issued by the British Tamils Forum (BTF) on Saturday.
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Tissainayagam, PTA, and Humanitarian Crisis in Vanni

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 September 2008, 11:45 GMT]
The action taken by the Sri Lankan Government to indict Tissainayagam, for stating the truth and exercising the right of fair comment he enjoys as a journalist, make it impossible for any dissent from the governments point of view to be published by the press in Sri Lanka. Tissainayagam is the first journalist to be caught up under the Draconian twins, the Prevention of Terrorism Act No:48 of 1979 (PTA) as amended, and the Emergency Regulations (EMR).
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Tamil Diaspora must act to prevent humanitarian tragedy - MP

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 August 2008, 09:39 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Member of Parliament from Jaffna District, Selvarajah Gajendran, on Tuesday, urged the Tamil Diaspora to provide assistance to local aid agencies working among the IDPs in Vanni and to campaign in their host countries to exert pressure on the GoSL to remove restrictions on the transport of emergency supplies to Vanni and urge the International Community to support the Tamil people's right to live in peace in their homeland. The Sri Lankan government has ordered Government Agents to operate from Vavuniyaa and has actively discouraged even UN agencies from entering Vanni, the MP said.
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Taravai, Upput-taravai

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 August 2008, 18:30 GMT]
The wasteland or brackish-soil fallow land

The brackish soil wasteland
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NESoHR: 70,000 new IDPs in Vanni in 60 days

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 August 2008, 11:35 GMT]
Documenting that during June and July, an additional 70,800 people registered with the Kilinochchi and Mullaitheevu Secretariats as new Internally Displaced People from areas proximity to Mannar, Vavuniyaa, Ma'nalaa'ru, and Mukamaalai Foward Defence Lines (FDLs), a report released Friday by NorthEast Secretariat on Human Rights (NESoHR), a Vanni based rights group, said that restrictions imposed by the Sri Lanka Government on taking essential items to Vanni have further hampered assistance given by the humanitarian agencies.
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NESoHR: 70,000 new IDPs in Vanni in 60 days

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 August 2008, 11:35 GMT]
Documenting that during June and July, an additional 70,800 people registered with the Kilinochchi and Mullaitheevu Secretariats as new Internally Displaced People from areas proximity to Mannar, Vavuniyaa, Ma'nalaa'ru, and Mukamaalai Foward Defence Lines (FDLs), a report released Friday by NorthEast Secretariat on Human Rights (NESoHR), a Vanni based rights group, said that restrictions imposed by the Sri Lanka Government on taking essential items to Vanni have further hampered assistance given by the humanitarian agencies.
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Portending danger for potable water in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 August 2008, 09:50 GMT]
The news of re-opening the cement factory at Kaangkeasanthu'rai (KKS) in the Jaffna Peninsula has been received with serious concern by academics and environmentalists from Jaffna. According to them, the factory, when it was functioning earlier, was a health hazard to the densely populated surroundings. It affected horticulture as crops were covered by cement dust. Above all, exploitative quarrying of limestone has already portended the possibility of seawater coming inside and polluting the entire groundwater table of the peninsula.
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