Jaffna to hold protest march

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 March 2005, 16:10 GMT]
Jaffna District Civil Organizations Consortium (JDCOC) Tuesday called for a protest march on Wednesday condemning the violence against political cadres of LTTE by the para military groups supporting the Sri Lanka government armed forces and the discrimination in providing relief to tsunami victims. The protest march will commence from Jaffna University Wednesday morning around 10 a.m. and will conclude in front of the Jaffna District Secretariat, sources said.

"We live in a no war, no peace situation for the last three years since the ceasefire came into operation. The Government of Sri Lanka is taking all steps for another war and violating the ceasefire agreement instead of taking forward the peace process. Our homeland devastated by the war has now been further affected by tsunami," said the statement issued by the JDCOC.

Several countries have come forward to assist tsunami hit coastal areas in Sri Lanka. But the Sri Lanka government is deliberately preventing such aid and assistance from reaching tsunami hit Tamil areas in the NorthEast, the statement said.

"We call upon all Tamils to participate in the protest march to express our protest to the Government of Sri Lanka for the violence in east, discrimination in the delivery of relief to NorthEast and for failing to move the peace process forward," said the statement.