Health Department officials say that medicines for the first quarter of 1999 were sent to the Vanni in early March following complaints of acute shortages in hospitals. In early March, the Vanni Citizens Committee handed to the UNHCR office in Mallavi, another petition addressed to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan regarding the suffering of civilians in the region. A government survey to determine the number of refugees, scheduled for early March, was disrupted following military operation Rana Gosha and denial of permission by the LTTE. This means that the 57% cut in food to Tiger-held areas will continue. NGOs say new displacement will cause further misery.
In Vavuniya District, a Jaffna woman has complained to the Sri Lankan Human Rights Commission that her husband K Senthilkumar, 22, was taken away by the security forces on 28 January from Poonthottam refugee camp in Vavuniya District. His whereabouts are unknown. Around 12,000 people who wish to go to Jaffna or to southern areas remain in camps in Vavuniya. Many of them have been denied permission by the security forces to travel to the south.
In Vavuniya, despite the appeal of the local people, the Tamil groups fighting the LTTE on the side of the Army continued to clash. PLOTE supporter Velayutham Pavanidevi, 53, was abducted by suspected TELO cadre on 19 March. Her body was later found at Pattakkadu on Mannar-Vavuniya road. A supporter of TELO was killed the following day. Three policemen and four Home Guards were killed in an LTTE landmine attack on a patrol at Dickwewa, five miles east of Vavuniya on 17 March.