Food is 'weapon of war' - UNP

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 August 1998, 22:58 GMT]
Ranil Wickramasinghe, Leader of the Sri Lankan Parliamentary Opposition and the United National Party (UNP) said that the Sri Lanka Government (SLG) was using food as weapon on civilians living in areas controlled by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), according to Parliamentary sources.

Speaking at a special debate on the plight of civilians in the LTTE controlled regions, he said that food and drugs were not being sent in sufficient quantities to those areas.

Speaking on behalf of the Peoples' Alliance (PA) Government, Anuruddha Ratwatte, Deputy Minister of Defence said that the solution to the problems in the Vanni was to "liberate these areas from the LTTE".

R. Sambanthan MP, (Tamil United Liberation Front - Trincomalee District) said that the ethnic problem could be resolved only if the UNP and PA came together.

Winding up the debate for the SLG, Nimal Siripala De Silva, Minister of Health said that there was no truth in the allegation that there were cutbacks in the quantity of food and drugs delivered to the Vanni.