Appeals over Oddusuddan displaced

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 January 1999, 10:44 GMT]
The Vanni Citizen Committee has urged the UNHCR officials, in a memorandum, to make arrangements to provide relief assistance to the 15,000 displaced people of Oddusuddan who had sought refuge at Puthukudiyeruppu area in Mullaithivu district.

The memorandum had been handed over to the officials based in Mallavi in the LTTE controlled area of the Vanni region.

Operation ëRivibalaí (Sun Power in Sinhalese) launched by the SLA to capture Oddusuddan had forced most of the farm families and the displaced people who had sought refuge in the area to flee for their lives leaving their properties and valuables behind, the memorandum had said.

Farmers who had cultivated paddy and other cash crops in an area of about 5000 acres by the irrigation tank of Muththayankaddu had abandoned their fields.

The memorandum said that the farmers had left behind about 26,000 cattle and 30,000 birds (fowl), along with their belongings and household things as the people of the area were not warned ahead of the operation.

The Citizen Committee had pointed out to the UNHCR officials that the Oddusuddan displaced have suffered in the torrential rains during the past weeks without proper shelter and relief assistance and had urged the officials to take immediate actions tot provide them flood relief and other assistance.