Jaffna residents stranded in Vavuniya, protest

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 November 2006, 11:29 GMT]
Stranded Jaffna peninsula residents, trapped in Vavuniya since Sri Lanka Army (SLA) closed A9, the land route to Jaffna peninsula from August 11, staged a demonstration Wednesday at the Vavuniya Secretariat demanding the authorities to send them to their homes and submitted an appeal to Ms. Charles, the Additional Government Agent of Vavuniya, said Vavuniya Secretariat sources.



The Commissioner of Essential Services had consented to send the stranded persons back to the peninsula on Tuesday but they failed to transport them, said one of the demonstrators.

So far more than 2500 stranded Jaffna residents in Vavuniya were taken in buses to Trincomalee harbour and from there shipped to Jaffna.

Sivanathan Kishore, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentarian for Vanni district said quoting the Commissioner of Essential Services that the still stranded Jaffna peninsula residents will be sent to Jaffna by ships from November 1 onwards.

However, Vavuniya Secretariat said that there had been no instructions from the Government of Sri Lanka for providing sea transport of the Jaffna peninsula residents to their homes.



The stranded Jaffna residents are facing hardships and inconvenience in their temporary places of stay in Vavuniya. In addition to running into financial difficulties in meeting their daily expenses, families have also been inflicted with illness and have suffered from inadequate medical care, civil society sources said.

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