MSF brings Jaffna wounded to Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 May 2000, 17:19 GMT]
Four civilians wounded in shelling in the Thenmaradchi division of Jaffna were transferred from Mallavi to Vavuniya hospital Monday by Medicins Sans Frontiers. The four are from the village of Madduvil south which was captured by the Liberation Tigers when they advanced on Chavakachcheri and its environs on May 19-20. They were brought overland through the Vanni from LTTE held sectors of Jaffna by the MSF.

More civilians who were wounded in bombing and shelling in Thenmaradchi are expected to be transferred from the Vanni to Vavuniya for further treatment hospital sources in this northern border town said.

The wounded civilians who were brought in by the MSF today are: Thaventhiran Jeyarajaratnam, 51, his wife Sivaganeswary Thaventhiran, 48, and their son Anpumainthan, 8, and Koureesan Kathirkamanathan, 25.

The Sri Lanka army has been heavily shelling and bombing the northwestern and western sectors of the Thenmaradchi division since the Liberation Tigers began overwhelming SLA positions in Thanangkilappu, Navatkuly, Kaithady, Madduvil, Nunavil and Chavakachcheri from early May.

Civilians in villages to the southeast and northeast of Jaffna town up to Chavakachcheri are now using the Kerathivu - Sangupiddy causeway and ferry to travel between the Vanni and the peninsula aid agency sources in the north said.

Civilians from Kaithady, Navatkuly, Thachchanthoppu, Maravan Pulavu, Thanangkilappu, Madduvil, Chavakachcheri town, Sangaththanai etc., are moving into northern Vanni to escape bombing and shelling according to persons who came to Vavuniya from the LTTE held region this week.

Several persons in the Vanni who were displaced from these villages in 1995 had gone back to visit relatives and homes after the Pooneryn - Kerathivu route and the roads from Kerathivu to Navatkuly and Chavakachcheri were opened for public traffic by the Liberation Tigers last week they said.

The Mahatheva cause way between Sanguppiddy (Pooneryn) and Kerathivu remains incomplete with a short gap that has not been bridged for long because of the war. (The causeway was built to establish an uninterrupted land route between Mannar and Jaffna - the B32 road.) A basic ferry service has begun to ply the causeway's gap now sources said.

Some residents of Pallai and nearby villages who arrived in Vavuniya last week said that civilians are now able to travel on the A9 between the Vanni and the southern parts of Thenmaradchi through Elephant Pass. They said that traffic is still restricted due to uncleared mine fields by the road, particularly between Paranthan north and Iyakkachchi.