Civil organizations in northeast submit their pleas to Kofi Annan

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 January 2005, 16:51 GMT]
Civil organization representatives in northeast accompanied by a large crowd met Ms Penny Brune, UNICEF representative for Vanni, in Killinochchi on Friday and handed her written appeals from civil organizations. The appeals urged the visiting UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, to visit Vadamaradchi East and Mullaithivu areas that have been devastated by the tsunami attack. Ms Penny Brune after receiving the appeals said that she will ensure that all the appeals reach the UN Secretary General the same day.



Consortium of Civil Organizations, Consortium of NGOs, National Awareness Front, Medical Professionals Association, Society for Three Wheeler Owners, Federation of Farmers‚ Associations, Federation of Women‚s Organizations, Association of Businessmen, and Tamil Students Association were among the civil organizations in Killinochchi district that submitted appeals. Consortium of Fishermen‚s‚ Associations and Organization for Rehabilitation and Reconstruction are some of the organizations from Vadamaradchi east that submitted appeals to UN Secretary General. In addition several village development councils and women‚s organizations have also submitted appeals.

Many news wire services including CNN, Associated Press and Reuters reported, quoting UN officials that UN Secretary General would have liked to visit tsunami devastated areas in the LTTE controlled parts of the country but the Sri Lankan government has not accommodated his wish.

The reports claimed that the UN officials were frustrated by the uncooperative stance of the Sri Lankan government.