Father commits suicide

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 February 1999, 00:34 GMT]
A father of seven children, who had been displaced frm Nainamadu inNedunkerni area and sought refuge at Paalinagar A in Vavunikulam, committed suicide today, said aid workers in the Vanni. Suppiah Amirthalingam had been extremely worried about his family, which had been suffering without adequate food for a long time.

All his attempts to find a job to feed his family had failed and unable to witness their suffering, he had decided to commit suicide they added.

Aid workers said that this is the second death in the past ten days linked to hunger in the Vanni region.

On January 26, Muthuveeran Subramaniam a father of 5 children died of exhaustion brought about by prolonged starvation, while he was coming to the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) controlled area from the Vanni.

Meanwhile, sources at the Department of Health in Vanni said that the number of children who faint in schools during classes had increased.

Most of the children who are displaced people who had were facing severe shortages of and suffering from malnutrition.

Aid workers said school children often faint in classrooms, as they are weak to fight against diseases the sources explained.

Hunger and malnutrition are on the increase in the Vanni due to the economical barrier and the strict ban on preventive drugs, they said.

Although some non-governmental organisations are looking after the needs of some of the children, the situation is deteriorating, aid workers said.