Issue names of IDPs, Sangaree tells authorities

TULF Leader V. Anandasangaree making an urgent plea, requested the authorities to issue a list of names of IDPs who had successfully crossed over to the cleared areas from the Vanni braving LTTE threats, so that their relatives could be assured of their safety.

Anandasangaree in a letter addressed to President Mahinda Rajapaksa has explained that he was receiving phone calls daily from Tamils living abroad, anxious to know about their relatives, as there were no facilities for communication between them.

He also requested to allow for the sick, elderly and the children to be looked after by their relatives who would volunteer, away from the stiff environs of IDP camps.

The letter: "Several calls had come to me today and yesterday from Tamils living abroad frantically making inquiries about their kith and kin, trapped in Vanni and escaping to Vavuniya taking grave risk to their lives. They want to know, first of all whether their people are alive and if so where?

The LTTE had not responded to the plea of various organization like the UN, EU and the Co-Chairs, apart from countries like UK, USA, Canada and India, for their release from Vanni

It is unfortunate that Tamil Nadu and surprisingly the TNA had not appealed to the LTTE to release the innocent ones but shockingly issuing silly statements still to please the LTTE.

I make three urgent appeals to you. One to release a list of names of persons who had come from Vanni and where they are now accommodated.

That will ease the excitement and tension of the relatives living abroad and also will enable them to offer any assistance, the displaced persons may need.

The second one is a request to allow the elders, the sick and the children to join their relative who are prepared to accommodate them at their homes in Vavuniya. Others can be handed over to the parents after proper inquiry later.

I wish to mention two incidents in support of this request. A person know to me from Kilinochchi has lost both his legs and is in a state of coma at the Mannar Hospital. The whereabouts of the rest of the family is not known.

They want me to trace them. In another incident the wife who has fractured her leg is being looked after by her mother at the Mannar Hospital. The husband who brought his injured child the next day is looking after him at the Vavuniya Hospital. Their relations who are in Vavuniya are prepared to accommodate them, at their home.

The third request is to allow the local NGOs, Political Parties and Social Organization such as Rural Developments Societies, Community Centers etc. to visit the refugees.

This will counter the false propaganda of the LTTE that youth are taken to unknown destinations, women missing, inmates treated like prisoners, low quality of food etc. Since the inmates are increasing in number day by day, the assistance of volunteer organizations will prove very beneficial."