Usan IDPs picket demanding resettlement

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 August 2004, 22:50 GMT]
Internally displaced families of Usan, a village in Thenmaradchchi division in Jaffna district Monday picketed the Thenamaradchchi divisional secretariat demanding that they should be allowed to resettle in their own houses now being occupied by the Sri Lanka Army in the name of high security zone. The picketing crippled the normal function of the Thenmaradchchi DS office, civil sources said.

About 112 houses of IDPs of Usan village are currently occupied by the SLA troops.

The picketing, which commenced Monday morning around 7.30 a.m. was called off at about 1.30 p.m. after the organizers handed a memorandum to Thenmaradchchi DS Mr.S.Srinivasan addressed to the Jaffna Government Agent. Jaffna district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians also participated in the picketing

IDPs have said in their memorandum that they would resume their picketing on August 25 if the authorities failed to make arrangement for them to return to their houses in Usan.

Copies of the memorandum had been sent to the Jaffna regional office of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka and other related government authorities