Jaffna emergency aid blocked

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 November 1997, 23:59 GMT]
The Sri Lankan army has detained more than twenty lorries carrying essential items to Jaffna town since Thursday Nov. 27. The lorries were carrying goods unloaded from a supply ship at the Pt. Pedro jetty.

They were detained at Kopay, Neervely and Kalviankadu following the firefight between the Liberation Tigers and the SLA on Thursday night.

Unconfirmed reports said that the lorries are being held up by the army because it suspects that some of the Tiger fighters in the attack group which confronted the army at Kopay may have come in one of the lorries.

But informed sources said that the lorries are checked and sealed at Pt. Pedro by the Sri Lankan navy and that there isn't any place on the way where the LTTE could have boarded the vehicles.

The army handed over the bodies of two youth to the Jaffna hospital around noon yesterday.

The SLA claimed that the bodies were those of the Tigers who had been killed in the clash at Kopay.

The head of one youth was blown off. The two youth have not been identified.