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TULF for global intervention on civilians

— Photo: AP

Congested: Displaced Tamils are seen in the area of the No-Fire Zone controlled by the LTTE, in Mullivaaykaal, Sri Lanka, on Friday.

COLOMBO: Tamil United National Front (TULF) leader V. Anandasangaree, in a letter addressed to Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, has suggested that an international agency acceptable to the government be selected to visit Wanni and persuade the LTTE to allow innocent people to go free, with an offer of general amnesty to LTTE cadre who surrender with arms.

“A period of two weeks may be given to the agency to make the necessary arrangements. If such an arrangement is not made to bring out the civilians safely, the whole thing will end up in a national disaster detrimental to the good name of the country,” he said in the letter sent on May 1. The TULF leader said the number of those stranded in Wanni was over 1,50,000. He said it was very unfortunate that though aerial bombing had stopped, shelling and artillery attacks had been taking place during the last three days.

“I wish to point out that the military action that is going on, apart from causing several casualties among the IDPs [Internally Displaced Persons] in Wanni, the fear and tension this is causing to those IDPs who have already come into the welfare centres will have serious repercussions on them since most of their relatives are still in Wanni.” The letter further said there was an acute shortage of food and people were on the verge of starvation. It was on April 2 that they received 1,100 metric tonnes of food items, it said. “Since then, on the 28th and 29th 30 metric tonnes was received each day. Sugar received on these two consignments is only 1,000 kg each. Hence, please direct the authorities concerned to dispatch sufficient stock of food items and drugs immediately to Wanni,” it said.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka Special Task Force (STF) personnel in Komari and Pottuvil in the east said they had thwarted an LTTE infiltration bid, killing four Tiger cadre.

The military said troops had breached one more earth bund built by the LTTE across the A-35 Mullaithivu road and it had been taken over by soldiers moving southwards along the land between the A-35 road and the Nanthi Kadal lagoon.

The pro-LTTE TamilNet, in a report, charged that the Army during the weekend had deployed its troops for a major onslaught.

“All kinds of heavy weapons, including prohibited ones, are ready for deployment on the NFZ,” it said. The military denied the charge and said that as per policy the troops do not use heavy weapons in taking on the Tigers inside the NFZ.

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