Usan villagers to picket against SLA occupation

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 July 2004, 18:12 GMT]
Villagers of Usan area in Thenmaradchchi division in Jaffna district are to launch a picketing campaign from August 5 demanding the return of their houses and school grounds. Currently the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers occupy these houses and school playground since the SLA captured the peninsula in 1996.

The Usan residents Monday handed over a memorandum to the Divisional Secretary of Thenmaradchchi division and to the head of the Jaffna SLA command in this regard, residents said.

The memorandum said that people are planning to begin a picketing campaign in front of the Thenmaradchchi Divisional Secretariat from August 5 if the demands are not met before the deadline, residents said.

SLA soldiers occupy about 19 houses of the internally displaced, office building of the Rural Development Society and the playground of Usan Ramanathan Maha Vidiyalayam.

The headquarters of the 55 Division of the SLA in Thenmaradchchi is also located in the village Usan, sources said.