SLN blocks Delft islanders at sea

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 September 2002, 19:11 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Navy stopped civilians travelling in seven boats from the island of delft in Jaffna to the island of Eluvaitheevu off Jaffna Wednesday afternoon around 4 p.m. The civilians were on their way to attend the remembrance day celebrations of Lt.Col Thileepan who fasted unto death in September 1987. The SLN attempted to board the boats and tried to force the civilians to return back to Delft, press sources in Jaffna said.

The people of Delft, however, had resisted the SLN and had proceeded to Eluvaitheevu. Later when Arunthavan, a political activist of the Liberation Tigers, volunteered to accompany the passengers, SLN sailors had tried to assault him, according to the sources.

Meanwhile, in Point Pedro, the head of the LTTE’s political division for Nelliyadi, Thaya, and the head of the division for Vadamaradchi, K. Barathy were prevented from going to the opening ceremony of the new Pt. Pedro Multi Purpose Co-operative Society (MPCS) building on Sea Street Wednesday morning at the Beach road SLA sentry point , according to sources.

The two LTTE officials informed the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) about the incident and again tried to go back to the function. The SLA sentries on Beach Road had blocked them again.

A local politician communicated this incident to the 52-2 Brigade commander who invited the two officials for a meeting with him. The matter was resolved amicably after the meeting, source said.