Thousand civilians enter LTTE held Vanni region

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 August 2006, 15:48 GMT]
Stranded Tamil civilians in Vavuniya town for about six days were allowed to travel through Omanthai check point to the LTTE held districts of Killinochchi, Mullaitivu and Vavuniya North division in the Vavuniya district Friday. The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) reopened the Vavuniya-Omanthai check point Friday afternoon around 2.30 p.m for limited hours due to combined effort taken by Mr.Kishore Sivanathan, Vanni district parliamentarian and officials of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) and Vavuniya district secretariat.



More than one thousand stranded persons including about 260 public servants entered the LTTE Vanni region after severe check by SLA soldiers manning the Omanthai check point. Heavy vehicles with goods were not allowed to enter LTTE area. However empty heavy vehicles were allowed, civil sources said.

Not a single person from LTTE controlled territory arrived at Omanthai check point to enter government controlled territory till its closure around 5 p.m. Friday.