Peace ceremony shifted to Vavuniya due to protests

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 June 2003, 17:05 GMT]
A ceremony to honour personalities who have dedicated themselves to promote peace and harmony in the country and scheduled to be held in Jaffna University Kailasapathy Auditorium Saturday morning has been shifted to Vavuniya due to protests by civil groups, sources said.

Jaffna based civil groups and peoples' organizations brought to the notice of the organizers of the event, Peace Foundation, that has its headquarters in the south, that it is not the appropriate moment to hold such celebration in Jaffna as no peace and normalcy has returned to the lives of people in Jaffna district, sources said .

Jaffna residents are not in a mood to witness "Samasoori" (peace) award presentation event at this juncture, civil groups said.

The organizers have planned to honour thirty-one personalities including four from Jaffna district who have contributed to the promotion of peace and national harmony in the island at the function to be held on Saturday, organizers said.

The four Jaffna personalities selected to be honoured at the event - Fr.C.G.Jeyakumar of HUDEC organization, Mr. S.Paramanathan of Jaffna Humanitarian Agencies, Ms Saroja Sivachandran of Jaffna Women Development Forum and Ms Thangamma Appakutty of Tellipallai Thurgai Amman Thevasthanam have expressed their inability to participate in the "Samasoori " award presentation event in the present circumstances, civil sources said.

Japanese and Norwegian envoys in Colombo were also expected to participate in the event, which was to be presided by Jaffna University Vice chancellor Professor K.Mohanadas, sources said.