IDPs taken to Vanni not allowed residing in their homes

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 November 2009, 06:42 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) does not permit the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) taken to Poonakari and Thu’nukkai in Vanni to reside in their houses but keep them lodged in the school buildings, sources in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, SLA in Jaffna takes a group of teachers to these areas and brings them back daily in buses claiming that they teach the children of the IDPs. This is but an attempt by the government to show that the released Vanni IDPs are leading a normal life as it is not possible to conduct educational activities in schools occupied by IDPs, education officers in Jaffna observed.

The teachers who had been serving in Vanni and displaced to Jaffna due to war are the ones who are taken in buses in the morning through Poonakari, Paranthan to Thu’nukkai and brought back to Jaffna in the evening daily.