Protest march held in Vadamaradchchi supporting aid deal

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 June 2005, 11:28 GMT]
Thousands of people participated in the protest march held Monday in the Vadamaradchchi division in Jaffna district demanding the immediate implementation of the joint mechanism structure and withdrawal of the government troops from their land. The Vadamaradchchi fisheries societies federation organized the protest march, sources said.

About five km long protest march which commenced around 10.45 a.m. from Thikkam junction in Valvettithurai-Point Pedro road concluded at Supparmadam junction in Point Pedro. Representatives of fisheries federation, several Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians and civil leaders participated in the demonstration, sources said

Protestors along the march route distributed leaflets printed in Sinhala to soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) guarding the sentry points request that they should vacate the district. With each leaflet a bag was also handed to each soldier to take their belongings when they leave the district for good, sources said.

The traffic along the procession route came to a standstill for about an hour.

General shut down was observed in the Vadamaradchchi division. Fishermen did not go to sea, sources said.

At the end of the march, organizers made arrangement to send copies of a memorandum to the UN Secretary General and envoys of member-countries of the European Union and LTTE leader Mr.V.Pirapaharan, sources said.