ICRC to transport bodies from Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 February 2000, 14:59 GMT]
The ICRC is involved in working out modalities to transport bodies of the Liberation Tigers who are killed on the Jaffna Peninsula and hand them over to the Tigers in the Vanni said sources in the northern town.

Details of those killed on the peninsula will be conveyed to the Liberation Tigers. The bodies will then be transported thorough the Jaffna Lagoon, after the Liberation Tigers confirm that they wish to accept the bodies, residential representative of the ICRC in Jaffna said.

Jaffna was captured by the government troops in early 1996.

Transporting bodies to the mainland has proven difficult as the only land between peninsula and the rest of the island is through the narrow Elephant Pass causeway, which is held by the Sri Lanka Army.

Currently, the ICRC is responsible for the exchange of bodies on the mainland, with both the Liberation Tigers and the Sri Lankan government forces handing the bodies to the ICRC to be handed over to the other party.