2ND LEAD

Sri Lanka restricts North East Tamils from visiting Colombo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 November 2007, 16:26 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Police has introduced new regulations restricting temporary stay for Tamil civilians visiting Colombo from North and East provinces for urgent needs, civil sources in Colombo said. The visting Tamils are asked to bring letters from Grama Sevakar (village level officers) of their respective areas, stating the reason for their visit to Colombo, and to register their presence. Meanwhile some Divisional Secretaries are reported to have instructed the GS officials in their respective divisions not to issue letters to persons who wish to travel to Colombo.

The new restrictions have caused severe difficulties for Tamils who visit Colombo to attend medical examination, interviews and to make arrangement to go abroad, civil sources said.