3RD LEAD (Correction)

Vessel leaves Trinco taking stranded passengers

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 October 2006, 11:24 GMT]
About five hundred stranded Tamil civilians in Vavuniya Wednesday left from Trincomalee port by a vessel "Sakthi" chartered by the Sri Lanka security forces. The civilians were brought to Trincomalee from Vavuniya by several buses Tuesday evening and they spent Tuesday night on board the vessel, port sources said.

Another group of eight hundred stranded civilians are waiting in Vavuniya to leave by sea from Trincomalee port.

Meanwhile, Minister Keheliya Rambukwella, defence ministry spokesperson, said at a press briefing in Colombo that a Trincomalee-KKS passenger vessel service is scheduled to be started from Wednesday.

Civil authorities concerned in Trincomalee said that they have not received any instruction from Colombo to register names of those who wish to travel to Jaffna from Trincomalee by the passenger service.

Sources in Colombo said the vessel "Jetliner" is likely to be deployed to transport passengers daily from Trincomalee to KKS. This vessel could take about four hundred passengers at a time.