The latest influx of IDPs from Oddusuddan and Keppapulavu are occurring in the Mullaithivu district.
Though the IDPs newly arriving bring whatever shelter material they can to put up a temporary shelter, the restrictions on shelter material imposed by the Sri Lankan Government is starkly visible in the new IDP settlement in Puthukudiyiruppu. Most of the newly arrived IDPs say that they have so far not received any assistance from anyone. Imelda Sukumar, Government Agnent for the Mullaithivu District describing the recent increase in IDPs in her District said that 216, 195 people are displaced in her district. She added that the displaced people are staying in very crowded areas and that the roads are in very poor condition due to the recent floods. People are facing great difficulties even in undertaking short journeys to the shops and schools she said.
She expressed concern that the IDP size is going to get bigger worsening their plight.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
4 civilians killed, 14 wounded in air strike, hospital reports blood shortage
Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombers attacked a civilian settlement near Murugananda school in Murasumoaddai on Paranthan - Mullaiththeevu Road killing two females of a family and a male on the spot.
Another man, who was seriously wounded, succumbed to his injuries at the hospital. 14 civilians, including a couple, were wounded. The attack has targeted three civilian settlements in Murasumoaddai Wednesday around 8:00 a.m. Meanwhile, Medical Superintendent of Vanni s main hospital at Tharmapuram, Dr. S. Sathiyamoorthy, has placed the hospital and the surrounding area on red alert for blood shortage as Sri Lanka Army (SLA) launched artillery attack on the village after the carnage by the SLAF.
The Sri Lankan air strike targeted civilian houses behind Murugananda school, two settlements of refugees, one at Chelliah Shop Junction and the other behind Cheaththukkandi Amman temple at Murasumoaddai.
24-year-old Juda Margarat Aseervatham, 55-year-old Asservaatham Maryamma and Markandu Sivanandan were killed on the spot.
52-year-old Chandrabose, one of the 14 wounded who were admitted at Tharmapuram hospital, succumbed to his injuries at the Intensive Care Unit.
The wounded were identified as I. Nirmalan, 15, S. Ragulan, 21, Arumaiththurai Jesinald, 26, Ramachandran Kumanan, 30, Selvarajah Kulendran, 33, K. Jeyasri, 38, Somasundaram Chandrakumar, 43, Annakkodi Chandramary, 45, Vellaichamy Annakkodi, 49, S. Balasundaram, 51, Palaniayappan Subramaniyam, 52, Ranjithamalar, 58, and Saravana Bavananthan, 62.
Another man, who was seriously wounded, succumbed to his injuries at the hospital. 14 civilians, including a couple, were wounded. The attack has targeted three civilian settlements in Murasumoaddai Wednesday around 8:00 a.m. Meanwhile, Medical Superintendent of Vanni s main hospital at Tharmapuram, Dr. S. Sathiyamoorthy, has placed the hospital and the surrounding area on red alert for blood shortage as Sri Lanka Army (SLA) launched artillery attack on the village after the carnage by the SLAF.
The Sri Lankan air strike targeted civilian houses behind Murugananda school, two settlements of refugees, one at Chelliah Shop Junction and the other behind Cheaththukkandi Amman temple at Murasumoaddai.
24-year-old Juda Margarat Aseervatham, 55-year-old Asservaatham Maryamma and Markandu Sivanandan were killed on the spot.
52-year-old Chandrabose, one of the 14 wounded who were admitted at Tharmapuram hospital, succumbed to his injuries at the Intensive Care Unit.
The wounded were identified as I. Nirmalan, 15, S. Ragulan, 21, Arumaiththurai Jesinald, 26, Ramachandran Kumanan, 30, Selvarajah Kulendran, 33, K. Jeyasri, 38, Somasundaram Chandrakumar, 43, Annakkodi Chandramary, 45, Vellaichamy Annakkodi, 49, S. Balasundaram, 51, Palaniayappan Subramaniyam, 52, Ranjithamalar, 58, and Saravana Bavananthan, 62.
Forget the 'unfortunate' past: Rajapaksa tells people of Jaffna
Vowing that his government would restore "all that was lost due to terrorism", Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa has asked the people of the northern Jaffna peninsula that it was time to forget "the unfortunate developments of the past".
President Rajapaksa made these remarks Monday night while addressing the people of Jaffna via satellite transmission on the occasion of an "educational and industrial exhibition" organised by the Sri Lanka Army.
"It is time for us to forget the unfortunate developments of the past. We shall take action to restore to the people of Jaffna and the north, all they have lost in the past," Rajapaksa said.
The president's office here said it was for the first time that a Sri Lankan head of the state has spoken "to the Tamil people in their own language".
"All that was lost to you due to terrorism will be restored. It will not be long before your brothers and sisters who are trapped in areas such as Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu can be happy. That is when, just like the new dawn in the east, there will be the new spring in the north," Rajapaksa was quoted as saying.
The ruling coalition of President Rajapaksa is determined to capture the rebel-held districts of Mullaitivu and Kilinochchi and the government troops are said to be operating on the outskirts of Kilinochchi town, 350 km north of here.
Despite shrinking territories, the LTTE has been putting up heavy resistance against the advancing troops, slowing down the progress of the government troops.
President Rajapaksa last week threatened to outlaw the Tamil Tigers as a terrorist group if it did not allow Tamils living in its control to move to government-held areas with the dawn of 2009.
The LTTE has been fighting against the Sri Lankan government for a quarter century to carve out a separate state for Tamils in the northern and eastern parts of the island.
Thousands have died in escalating fighting since late 2005.
President Rajapaksa made these remarks Monday night while addressing the people of Jaffna via satellite transmission on the occasion of an "educational and industrial exhibition" organised by the Sri Lanka Army.
"It is time for us to forget the unfortunate developments of the past. We shall take action to restore to the people of Jaffna and the north, all they have lost in the past," Rajapaksa said.
The president's office here said it was for the first time that a Sri Lankan head of the state has spoken "to the Tamil people in their own language".
"All that was lost to you due to terrorism will be restored. It will not be long before your brothers and sisters who are trapped in areas such as Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu can be happy. That is when, just like the new dawn in the east, there will be the new spring in the north," Rajapaksa was quoted as saying.
The ruling coalition of President Rajapaksa is determined to capture the rebel-held districts of Mullaitivu and Kilinochchi and the government troops are said to be operating on the outskirts of Kilinochchi town, 350 km north of here.
Despite shrinking territories, the LTTE has been putting up heavy resistance against the advancing troops, slowing down the progress of the government troops.
President Rajapaksa last week threatened to outlaw the Tamil Tigers as a terrorist group if it did not allow Tamils living in its control to move to government-held areas with the dawn of 2009.
The LTTE has been fighting against the Sri Lankan government for a quarter century to carve out a separate state for Tamils in the northern and eastern parts of the island.
Thousands have died in escalating fighting since late 2005.
Australia celebrates the New Year
Celebrations are beginning around the world to usher in 2009.
A record crowd of up to 1.5 million people watched a huge, multi-million dollar fireworks display centred around Sydney's iconic Harbour Bridge.
Not to be outdone, New Zealand staged a pyrotechnics display from Auckland's Sky Tower.
Kiritimati, or Christmas Island, in the Pacific Ocean became the first inhabited place on Earth to celebrate the new year at 1000 GMT.
Organisers of the Sydney festivities - the biggest New Year event the city has yet staged - said they were hoping it would offer revellers a brief respite from the economic gloom of 2008.
"There's so much misery around," fireworks director Fortunato Foti told reporters.
"If we can get people to forget all that and think just about the fireworks for 15 to 20 minutes, we will have done our job."
A record crowd of up to 1.5 million people watched a huge, multi-million dollar fireworks display centred around Sydney's iconic Harbour Bridge.
Not to be outdone, New Zealand staged a pyrotechnics display from Auckland's Sky Tower.
Kiritimati, or Christmas Island, in the Pacific Ocean became the first inhabited place on Earth to celebrate the new year at 1000 GMT.
Organisers of the Sydney festivities - the biggest New Year event the city has yet staged - said they were hoping it would offer revellers a brief respite from the economic gloom of 2008.
"There's so much misery around," fireworks director Fortunato Foti told reporters.
"If we can get people to forget all that and think just about the fireworks for 15 to 20 minutes, we will have done our job."
Sri Lankan rebels open to peace talks
Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger separatists are open to restarting peace talks with the government, despite the continuing military offensive aimed at crushing the group, a senior rebel official said.
The two sides have been fighting for more than 25 years over the rebels' demands for an independent state for minority Tamils in the north and east of this Indian Ocean island nation.
A new military push deep into the rebel heartland in recent months has forced the Tamil Tigers to retreat from vast swaths of land they once controlled, and the government has said it expects to finish off the group in the coming months.
Rebel political chief Balasingham Nadesan told The Associated Press the rebels did not believe they were facing imminent defeat.
"We have made several strategic withdrawals in order to save the lives of our people and maintain the strength of our forces. When the time and place is conducive, we will regain the land we have lost," he said in an e-mail sent to the AP late Tuesday.
The two sides agreed to a truce in 2002 and held internationally brokered peace talks aimed at resolving the bloody conflict. The talks stalled, however, and violence erupted again three years ago. The government officially pulled out of the cease-fire in January.
Nadesan said the rebels had not abandoned hopes for new peace talks.
"We have always been ready for peace talks, but the Sri Lankan government has been always insisting on a military solution," he said.
The government said it would only consider new peace moves if the rebels agreed to disarm.
"For three decades we were trying to convince (rebel leader Velupillai) Prabhakaran and his terror group to come to some sort of reasonable arrangement, but they failed," Cabinet minister Keheliya Rambukwella said.
If the group refuses to lay down its weapons, "we will not move an inch from our position," he said.
The rebels have been fighting since 1983 to create an independent homeland for the minority Tamils, who have suffered decades of marginalization by successive governments controlled by the Sinhalese majority. The conflict has killed more than 70,000 people.
Fighting across the north continued Wednesday, and the rebel-linked TamilNet Web site reported that air force jets bombed a village about 8 a.m., killing four civilians and wounding 13 others.
Military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said there were no airstrikes Wednesday morning.
The latest government offensive has squeezed the rebels into an increasingly shrinking area in the northeast. Fighter jets have relentlessly pounded their strongholds and the military has closed in on the rebels' administrative capital, Kilinochchi
Nadesan said the rebels remained confident they would not be driven out of their heartland, but implied that if they were, the conflict would continue anyway.
"We are used to all types of wars," he said, adding that the Tamil Tigers began as a guerrilla group. "We will struggle on with the help of our people until their political aspirations are met."
The two sides have been fighting for more than 25 years over the rebels' demands for an independent state for minority Tamils in the north and east of this Indian Ocean island nation.
A new military push deep into the rebel heartland in recent months has forced the Tamil Tigers to retreat from vast swaths of land they once controlled, and the government has said it expects to finish off the group in the coming months.
Rebel political chief Balasingham Nadesan told The Associated Press the rebels did not believe they were facing imminent defeat.
"We have made several strategic withdrawals in order to save the lives of our people and maintain the strength of our forces. When the time and place is conducive, we will regain the land we have lost," he said in an e-mail sent to the AP late Tuesday.
The two sides agreed to a truce in 2002 and held internationally brokered peace talks aimed at resolving the bloody conflict. The talks stalled, however, and violence erupted again three years ago. The government officially pulled out of the cease-fire in January.
Nadesan said the rebels had not abandoned hopes for new peace talks.
"We have always been ready for peace talks, but the Sri Lankan government has been always insisting on a military solution," he said.
The government said it would only consider new peace moves if the rebels agreed to disarm.
"For three decades we were trying to convince (rebel leader Velupillai) Prabhakaran and his terror group to come to some sort of reasonable arrangement, but they failed," Cabinet minister Keheliya Rambukwella said.
If the group refuses to lay down its weapons, "we will not move an inch from our position," he said.
The rebels have been fighting since 1983 to create an independent homeland for the minority Tamils, who have suffered decades of marginalization by successive governments controlled by the Sinhalese majority. The conflict has killed more than 70,000 people.
Fighting across the north continued Wednesday, and the rebel-linked TamilNet Web site reported that air force jets bombed a village about 8 a.m., killing four civilians and wounding 13 others.
Military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said there were no airstrikes Wednesday morning.
The latest government offensive has squeezed the rebels into an increasingly shrinking area in the northeast. Fighter jets have relentlessly pounded their strongholds and the military has closed in on the rebels' administrative capital, Kilinochchi
Nadesan said the rebels remained confident they would not be driven out of their heartland, but implied that if they were, the conflict would continue anyway.
"We are used to all types of wars," he said, adding that the Tamil Tigers began as a guerrilla group. "We will struggle on with the help of our people until their political aspirations are met."
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