Muttur residents protest against SLA's embargo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 May 2005, 05:53 GMT]
A large number of Tamil civilians participated in protest marches held Wednesday in areas of LTTE controlled Muttur east and Eachchilampathu division in the sourthern Trincomalee district, demanding the immediate removal of ban on transporting cement, building materials and fuel through Sri Lanka Army (SLA) checkpoints at Kaddaiparichchan and Mahindapura, sources said.

The protest march held in Muttur east commenced from Navalady and reached the Kaddaiparichchan SLA camp.

Representatives of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) in Muttur, Divisional Secretariat officials and officer in charge of the Kaddaiparichchan SLA camp were at the site when the protest march arrived.

Delegations of the Civil Groups' Forum, which organized the protest marches handed over memoranda to SLMM monitors and army officials assembled at the SLA camps at Kaddaiparichchan and Mahindapura demanding the immediate removal of the embargo, sources said.

Forum officials said that SLA officers at Kaddaiparichchan and Mahindapura had earlier promised to provide a positive reply to their demand within 14 days when they held protest marches more than fourteen days ago. But there has been no change in th imposed ban, Forum officials added.