Demonstrators demand access to return

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 July 1999, 13:24 GMT]
An estimated thousand people demonstrated in front of the Government Agent's office in Vavuniya this morning demanding the authorities to make arrangements for them to travel back to their hometowns in the Vanni.

A large number of people from the LTTE controlled Vanni regions are stranded in Vavuniya due to closure of access to the Vanni due to recent military operations in the area of the crossing point.

Aid officials said that a tentative agreement to open access routes through the town of Mankulam had run into difficulties after the Sri Lanka Army said that the Liberation Tigers should pull back several miles from the proposed crossing point first.