Thenmaradchchi IDPs protest against SLA occupation

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 November 2003, 14:36 GMT]
About fifty men and women with children who had been displaced in 2000 military operations of the Sri Lanka Army Tuesday morning held a sit in protest in front of the SLA camp located close to the railway gate at Kachchai road in Chavakachcheri area in Thenamaradchchi division in Jaffna district demanding the return of their houses which have been occupied by the soldiers, police said.

The sit-in-protest commenced around 9.30 a.m. Tuesday and was abandoned around 12 noon due to the intervention of the army and police officials. The protestors, majority of them are employees of the Chavakachcheri Urban Council told the security officials that they have no alternative places to live as their temporary huts have been under water due to incessant rain. Hence their own houses now under army occupation should be returned forthwith, police said.

Meanwhile the SLA has invited these families to come for talks at the headquarters of the 52 Brigade of the SLA located at Varani, civil sources said.

Since 2000 the SLA occupies the houses of these families, which are located at a village "Uthayasooriyan" and Mahilankerni area in Chavakachcheri division, sources said.

These families had put up temporary huts in low-lying areas nearby as the SLA refuses to leave their houses in the name of security zones. The temporary huts have gone under water due to rain and also army has blocked the drains in the area preventing rainwater flowing into the nearby sea, civil activists said.

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