"Work may resume"

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 June 1999, 18:39 GMT]
In a letter sent to the Additional Government Agent of Jaffna, Mr.T.Vaithilingam, the Liberation Tigers said that the civil disobedience action they had asked government servants to observe on Tuesdays and Fridays has been relaxed.

The letter which was signed by Thooyavan, the LTTE's political wing leader for the Jaffna peninsula, said that this had been done to ease the problems faced by civilians in the peninsula.

"The Sri Lankan Army highlights the civil administration in Jaffna to hide its atrocities. The Government carried propaganda internationally that the peninsula was in its control," the letter said.

"We enforced this civil disobedience action to counter the Government's propaganda," the letter added.

The LTTE thanked everyone who had observed the action in the letter.

The letter added that the action would be reinforced if the necessity arose.

Meanwhile posters appeared in the Vadamaradchi area today warning that removing sand from the Kudathanai area has been banned. The sand is used for construction work.

Kudathanai is a village in Vadamarachchi, north of Jaffna town.

The posters also warned that tractors used for removing sand from Kudathanai would be confiscated and destroyed.

The removal of sand from Kudathanai has become a thorny issue between the people of the village and building contractors.

The villagers are angered by the contractors reckless removal of sand as they say it will lead to soil erosion.

At one stage, the Divisional Secretary of Maruthankerny and officials of the Point Pedro Urban Council intervened and brought an amicable settlement, allowing contractors to remove sand on a limited scale.

A week ago, however, the Sri Lanka Army intervened in the dispute and allowed the contractors to remove sand without restriction. The army authorities warned that those who imposed restrictions or any other conditions on the removal of sand would be dealt with severely.

Today, posters suddenly appeared in the village stating that the removal of sand from the Kudathanai village has been banned.