Displaced civilians cross FDLs

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 February 1999, 17:39 GMT]
Sixty five families who had been displaced in the Vanni walked through no-man's land on the Madhu-Mannar road and crossed into areas held by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) on Sunday said sources.

The Sri Lankan Army (SLA) took the 260 persons to Mannar and handed them over to the district's additional Government Agent Mr.V. Wisvalingam after screening, the sources said.

The families had been displaced from Jaffna, Trincomalee and northern Vanni by the war and had been living in Muththaiyan Kaddu until the acute shortage of food, disease and a shortage of medicine forced them to cross over.

The additional GA has housed these families in the Pesalai refugee camp on Mannar island said sources.

Aid workers say the food situation in the Vanni continues to deteriorate, aggravated by the government's decision last year to stop the greater part of refugee relief to many families living there.