More civilians brave Mannar seas to reach Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 September 2006, 07:19 GMT]
A group of 33 civilians of the many stranded people in Vavuniya by the shutting of A9 road to Jaffna, reached the Jaffna islet of Delft in three hired boats from Thalai Mannar Wednesday evening, Police sources in Kayts said. A group of 13 civilians arrived at Delft earlier in the week in a hired boat from Thalai Mannar risking their lives on the seas. More than 3500 civilians from Jaffna are stranded in Vavuniya and elsewhere following the closure of the A9 Road to Jaffna.

The group of civilians is expected to be produced before the acting magistrate at the Kayts Courts Thursday, legal sources said.

More than two thousand pilgrims from Jaffna peninsula to the annual Madu Church August festival and nearly one thousand five hundred Jaffna residents who had gone to Colombo and other parts of the island are stranded in Vavuniya and Trincomalee waiting for the A9 to open, sources in Vavuniya said.

Sri Lankan armed forces are yet to cooperate with the ICRC to reopen the A9 road and bring normalcy.

LTTE's Political Head S.P. Thamilchelvan who met the new Head of Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission Maj. Gen. Lars Johan Sølvberg recently had reiterated that the re-opening of A9 Road was a top-priority issue for humanitarian supplies.