News in Brief

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 October 1997, 23:59 GMT]
Search operation in Jaffna and bakeries in Vadamaradchi east which have been closed for more than 18months are yet to get wheat flour for making bread.

Search operation in Jaffna

A cordon and search operation was conducted in Karanavai south in Vadamaradchi on Thursday Oct. 23. Residents said that this followed information received by the local SLA unit that a group of Tigers had entered the area last week.

The night before this operation an armed group of eight had shot and killed a seventeen year old boy in west Imayanan in Uduppiddy which is also in the Vadamaradchi sector.

Informed sources in Jaffna said that there is an indication that the activity of the Liberation Tigers is on the increase in Vadamaradchi.

The SLA is trying to control the situation by conducting regular cordon and search operations even when they have meagre information from various petitioners who live in the area.

---

Jaffna bakeries wait for flour

Bakeries in Vadamaradchi east which have been closed for more than 18 months are yet to get wheat flour for making bread. The supply of flour to this part of the peninsula is banned by the SLA. Civilians are allowed only very limited quantities per family.

As a consequence bread has become a rare luxury to the working people living in the coastal villages from Vallipuram to Maamunai.

The SLA fears that the flour might be taken by the Liberation Tigers for maintaining their groups in this area.

The southern coastal stretch of the Vadamaradchi sector between Nagar Kovil and Vettilaikkerni is not in the hands of the army.

People from these parts who visit other areas of the peninsula buy many loaves of bread to give relatives back in their villages.

Meanwhile the Fisheries Development society of Maamunai, appealed to the 'minibus owners association of Vadamaradchi' to extend its service to the Maamunai village as well.

Currently there is only one 'Thatti van' service from Pt. Pedro to Nagar Kovil.

The large number of people who have to commute regularly to the main towns of Vadamaradchi have to walk for about five kilometers in the scorching sun to find transport.