Jaffna coastal villages no-go areas: SLA

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 October 1997, 23:59 GMT]
The citizens committee of Ariyalai in Jaffna made an appeal to the Sri Lankan military to lift the ban on the movement of people in several parts of the area - mainly along the coast.

The SLA has declared the villages of Uthayapuram, Vasanthapuram, Maniyan Thottam, Poompuhar, Munangu and some parts of Columbuthurai as no-go areas.

Therefore, the large number of people who were resident in these parts have to now live in overcrowded houses of relatives and the few places which are prepared to accommodate them.

The SLA does not want people to resettle in these villages because it fears that the Liberation Tigers on the mainland which is only a few kilometers across the lagoon may easily establish an entry point here to hit the Jaffna town.

The terrain here is suitable for the LTTE operations which, in the SLA's view, can jeopardise its strategic positions in an around the Jaffna town.

All these villages are located along the northern coast of the Jaffna lagoon, south east of the Jaffna town, and have shrub jungle and coconut plantations on their edges.

In the dry season it is easy to wade across the Jaffna lagoon to places like Poompuhar and Munangu from several points of the Pooneryn promontory.

In this context the SLA feels that a Tamil population in the villages of the Ariyalai coast may help a Tiger build up.

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