Tamil groups appeal to President

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 July 1999, 11:38 GMT]
Six Tamil parties in Colombo resolved today to appeal to the Sri Lankan President to take action to avert the crisis in the Vanni.

The Tamil United Liberation Front(TULF), the Ceylon Workers Congress(CWC), the Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Organisation (EPRLF), the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO), The Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP) and the People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) signed a resolution this afternoon on the Vanni situation.

They urged the Sri Lankan President to send food, fuel and medicine immediately to the affected areas, to make arrangements to hold the G.C.E A.L exams in the Vanni on schedule and to facilitate the speedy return of more than three thousand residents from those areas of the Vanni held by the Liberation Tigers who have been stranded in Vavuniya due to the closure of all access routes.

The Action Group of Tamils in Colombo (AGOTIC) which took part in the discussions this morning at the Ministry for Rural Industries and Plantation Infrastructure also signed the memorandum.

The Leader of the All Ceylon Tamil Congress, Mr. Kumar Ponnambalam who was at the meeting declined to sign the memorandum to the President on the grounds that he did not believe that she would address the problem at all.

The parties decided to form an action group to look into the plight of the people of the Vanni based on the President's reply to their memorandum.

The PLOTE was represented at today's meeting by K.Balachandran MP, EPRLF by its leader Suresh Premachandran, EPDP by S.Sivathasan MP, TULF by R.Sampanthan MP, TELO by A.Adaikalanathan MP, the CWC by its leader S.Thondaman and the AGOTIC by M.Wijesingham.