2ND LEAD

5000 Vanni IDPs from internment camps moved to Anuradhapura

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 July 2009, 13:23 GMT]
The Sri Lankan military has relocated nearly 5000 Tamil civilians from Vavuniyaa and Cheddiku'lam internment camps and resetteld them in pre dominant Sinhala village Tharmapuram in Anuradhapu on Tuesday and Wednesday, civil sources said. The SL military officials had told the Tamil civilians that they would be re-settled in their native villages in Ki'linochchi or Mullaiththeevu within 14 days, but the Rajapaksa government, at an all party meeting in Colombo on Thursday, said that it needed time to clear the mines before any resettlement.

The officials in Vavuniyaa said Cheddiku'lam IDP camps were overcrowded and they had to re-locate the civilians before sending them back.

At least six state-owned buses were put in service to ferry the civilians, the sources said.

Tharmapuram is situated 24 kilometres south east off Vavuniyaa along Mannaar Mathavaachchi Road.

Meanwhile, informed sources in Colombo said that the Tamil National Alliance has raised the matter with the Indian High Commission.