Demonstrators demand route to Vanni

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 July 1999, 10:00 GMT]
About 500 travellers, including government servants and traders from the LTTE held areas of the Vanni, have staged a Sathyagraha demonstration outside the Vavuniya Kacherie this morning demanding that a route to the LTTE held areas of the Vanni be opened immediately so that they could return home to their families.

The 500 are amongst 2000 civilians who were stranded in Vavuniya and Mannar when an army operation closed the route into the LTTE held areas of the Vanni.

The demonstrators said that they had been stranded for over a month and had no money to left to spend for their lodging and meals.

They also have to spend Rs.20 a day to renew a residential pass issued by the Police, without which they cannot stay in the army controlled areas.

"We do not want any meals. We want the authorities to open the road to the Vanni and we must be allowed to go home," the demonstrators told K.Ganesh the Government Agent in Vavuniya today.

While replying to the demonstrators, the GA said that they were trying their level best to open a road to the Vanni but that there had been no developments.

The demonstrators said that if arrangements were not made for them to return to the Vanni they would stage a protest fast opposite the kachcherie.

Meanwhile sources at the Department of Education said that it may not be possible to hold G.C.E A Level examinations this year as the SLA and the LTTE could not come to an agreement over the transport of examination papers and scripts into and out of the Vanni.