Vadamaradchi East blockade continues

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 September 1998, 21:43 GMT]
The Sri Lankan Army (SLA) refused to allow telephone connections and repairs to roads in Vadamaradchi east. The Vadamaradchi Citizens Committee met the officer in Charge (OIC) of the SLA brigade at Nagarkoil on the south-eastern coast of Jaffna last evening to seek remedies for some long standing problems afflicting the people living in that area.

The Citizens Committee had forwarded the following requests to the SLA earlier, requesting a meeting to discuss these issues affecting the people of Vadamaradchi east.

1.The unhindered supply of food to civilians.

2.Telephone link to the region.

3.Repairs to the crumbling road system.

4.The functioning of the Amban medical centre all days of the week.

The OIC told the committee that the current restrictions on food supplies to the civilians would be gradually lifted. He agreed to take steps to have the medical centre open all week.

But according to the Citizens Committee sources who attended the meeting last evening, the SLA had categorically denied requests 2 and 3 on the implied grounds that the Liberation Tigers could use the facilities to operate against the army.

Meanwhile, a 75 year old man, Sellaiah Pakkiathurai, committed suicide by hanging himself in his house early this morning around 5 p.m. in the Nagar Koil sector because he could not find the required medicine for a severe fever that had refused to subside for long.