SLA blocks Mannar traders from entering LTTE area

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 December 2005, 18:32 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) at Uyilankulam camp Wednesday refused entry into the LTTE held Wanni region for about six hundred traders of Nanattan division in the government controlled Mannar district to go to Killinochchi to attend a conference. SLA soldiers manning the checkpoint had told traders that they could not allow such large gathering to enter LTTE area, traders' association sources said.

Nanattan Traders' Association requested the SLA authorities that they were going to attend a conference related to business procedures. But army officers manning had told traders' association representatives that they had to get permission to allow them to enter LTTE area, sources said.

Traders waited for about three hours till about noon at the Uyilankulam camp in the hope that they would be allowed to enter LTTE area. But SLA soldiers had told them that higher authorities have not favorably responded to their request. Hence the traders returned to Nanattan and lodged a complaint with the members of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), sources said.