Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Authority’s N Obadage says that arrangements are being made for a permanent ship service. Shipping company Liverpool Navigation (Private) Ltd has filed a fundamental rights application in the Supreme Court, after the Defence Ministry denied permission to run a service to Jaffna. The company says that it purchased the ship MV Liverpool City after President Chandrika called for assistance from the private sector.
Some 1,400 people are registered in Vavuniya to go to Jaffna and another 1,015 wait in Mannar. A further 4,000 people are stranded in Trincomalee. The passenger ship Lanka Muditha arrived in Trincomalee with 1,190 passengers from Jaffna on 18 May. Around 1,250 refugees sent from Mannar to Trincomalee, after the government ordered closure of the Madhu refugee camp, left for Jaffna in the ship.
Eight days earlier, 240 Muslim families from the Lovelane refugee camp staged a protest fast in Trincomalee town, demanding restoration of government assistance which was stopped in June last year. The refugees say that no action has been taken to resettle them. The Army searched Allesthottam refugee camp on 8 May and arrested 23 young men and women. The camp houses refugees returned from India several years ago.
Reports from Batticaloa District say that the Treasury in Colombo has failed to pay Rs 77 million ($1.1 million) allocated by the government for assistance to 5,800 refugee families. As a result, cooperative societies have refused to issue dry rations to refugees after March. Batticaloa GA AK Pathmanathan has requested the Treasury to release Rs 20 million ($286,000) for dry rations. Reports also say that Rs 110 million ($1.6 million) was earmarked for rehabilitation in the current year, but only Rs 16 million has been received.
LTTE’s Pistol Group shot dead a policeman in Batticaloa town in early May. The Tigers attacked an Army unit at Welikande in Polonnaruwa District on 13 May killing four soldiers. Four days later, the security forces searched Navatkudah, three miles south of Batticaloa town and arrested two youths.
A house-to-house search was carried out in Valaichenai villages on 24 May. Several men were detained for interrogation and later released. Police say an LTTE member was taken into custody on 18 May at Akkaraipatru in Amparai District. On his information, a student and an NGO staff member were detained.