Stranded Jaffna residents protest in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 October 2006, 09:43 GMT]
Jaffna peninsula residents, trapped in Vavuniya district following the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) imposed closure of the A9 land route to Jaffna when clashes erupted between SLA and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) August 11, marched in protest from Vavuniya Secretariat to the offices of Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) and International Committee of Red Cross in Vavuniya Friday and complained against the long delay in sending them home, Vavuniya Secretariat sources said.



On September 24, nearly half of the two thousand stranded Jaffna residents in Vavuniya were taken in buses to Trincomalee harbour and from there shipped to Jaffna .

Friday demonstration in Vavuniya was organised by those left behind even after they had registered their names at Vavuniya Secretariat two months ago.

Government officials, University students, children and the elderly were selected on a priority basis for the first and second trips organised by the Vavuniya Secretariat.

The stranded Jaffna residents are forced to undergo hardships and inconvenience in their temporary places of stay in Vavuniya, said one of the demonstrators.

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