SLA opens access routes, blocks transport of Tamil paper

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 September 2005, 13:28 GMT]
After complaints from Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians to the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) opened the six access routes to LTTE controlled areas in Batticaloa district Saturday, but blocked transport of the Tamil daily "Batticaloa Eelanatham" into Sri Lanka Government controlled areas at the Pattiruppu bridge, Manmunai and Iranguthurai checkpoints, sources in Batticaloa said.

Batticaloa Eelanatham is printed in the LTTE controlled area of Kokkadichcholai in Batticaloa and has a daily circulation of 5000. The paper started publications after the signing of the Cease Fire Agreement in 2002.

Editor of the paper, P Venugopal, said that the SLA soldiers at the access route checkpoints have told the paper that they have received orders from higher SLA officers not to allow the paper to the Government controlled areas.

Mr Venugopal added that he has registered a complaint with the SLMM and also has informed the Tamil Media Alliance to further communicate the matter to international organizations.