Jaffna University students agitate against ‘grease devils’

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 September 2011, 05:45 GMT]
Openly accusing Sri Lanka government and its military for staging the ‘grease devil’ attacks on Tamils and Muslims of the North and East, and especially their women, the agitating students of the University of Jaffna called upon the International Community to take note of what is happening. More than a thousand students of the university with full support of the Teachers Union and Employees Union of the university staged the demonstration on Wednesday. Even animals resist when they are attacked, but we don’t have even that freedom against the cowardice ‘grease devils’ set by SL government with ultimate intentions of continued genocide, the demonstrators raised voices. It was a major demonstration in Jaffna in the last couple of years, news sources said. 

Students of various departments of the university came out of their classes by 11AM Wednesday, assembled inside and demonstrated for an hour. Later they went to the main entrance of the university facing road and demonstrated there holding placards.

The demonstration was participated by both Tamil and Muslim students together and was attended by representatives from the Vavuniyaa campus of the university.

Many students were found with covering their mouths with black cloths.

The demonstrators were openly raising slogans against Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and Sri Lanka Army for staging the ‘grease devil’ attacks.

Such attacks don’t take place in the South. They are specifically against Tamils and Muslims in the North and East, the demonstrators said.
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SRI LANKA: Battles ahead for women

humanitarian news and analysis
a service of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

Women in a vegetable plot they started
ALLANKULAM, 8 September 2011 (IRIN) - More policies and programmes must address the needs of female-headed households in Sri Lanka's former conflict zone, experts say.

"Most programmes don't take into account the unique role of women here," Saroja Sivachandran, director of the Center for Women and Development (CWD), an advocacy body based in northern Jaffna, told IRIN.
"They may be providing for the families, but [women] still have to cook, look after children and do all household chores."
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