Lifting curfew in Jaffna peninsula not possible – SLA Commander

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 June 2009, 12:02 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Commander of Jaffna, Major Gen. Mendaka Samarasinghe, in response to a request made in the conference held Saturday at Minister Douglas Devananda’s office in Jaffna, said that it is not possible to lift the night curfew imposed in Jaffna peninsula immediately as it would affect law and order, sources in Jaffna said.

The conference was held in Srithar Theatre on Stanley Road, the office of Minister Douglas Devananda’s Eelam Peoples’ Democratic Party (EPDP).

Jaffna SLA Commander, Police Superintendent and Douglas Devananda participated in the conference.

It was announced in the conference that the curfew in force from 9:30 p.m to 4:30 a.m daily will be cut down to 11:00 p.m to 5:00 a.m, the sources said.

The request to lift the curfew could be considered only after the security of the peninsula is ensured by forming civilian vigilant committees, the Commander said.

It was also announced that the road blocks imposed on Stanley Road, Clock Tower Road and the roads in front of Oorkaavattu’rai Police Station due to the arrival of Minister Douglas Devananda to Jaffna will be removed.

The date of the removal of road blocks, however, was not specified.

Meanwhile, a scheme to resettle the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from their villages in Valikaamam North declared as High Security Zones (HSZs) by SLA is to be made public and implemented soon, it was announced in the conference.