The Government has sent 30 Lorries of essential food supplies to Vakarai area this morning to meet the needs of the IDPs in the uncleared areas. This is in addition to the 85 vehicles sent on November 29.

The Media Centre for National Security has reported the District Secretary of the Batticaloa District, Mr. S. Punyamoorthi as saying that thirty Lorries were already on their way to the Vakarai area and the food items would reach the civilians by noon.

The LTTE have consistently prevented essential food supplies from reaching the civilians since last September when they stepped up military offensives against the security forces.

On November 28, the Government with the assistance of INGOs dispatched 117 Lorries containing essential food supplies to IDPs in the Vakarai area but failed due to LTTE attacks using heavy mortars on the military camp at Kajuwatte. One officer died and two soldiers were injured. The Humanitarian convoy that went from Batticaloa therefore had to turn back at Mankerny and return to Batticaloa.

Yesterday i.e. 29 th November, there was another attempt by a convoy of 117 vehicles to deliver essential items to IDPs in Vakarai. 85 vehicles of this convoy were able to reach Vakarai and deliver food supplies to the IDPs. However due to provocative conduct by the LTTE, the remaining 32 aid vehicles could not proceed to Vakarai. They had to return to Batticaloa. The other 85 vehicles that reached Vakarai yesterday afternoon were also requested to return to government controlled areas by evening. The last vehicle of the returning aid convoy reached Mankerny around 8.30 p.m.

Around 200 LTTE cadres began to strengthen the LTTE forward defenses lines in the Panichchankerni area using the cover of these aid convoys. The SL Defence Force had informed the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) of this illegal conduct and had requested the SLMM to ask the LTTE to refrain from such conduct during a humanitarian mission designed to provide essential supplies to the displaced.

It was also reported by the National Security Media Centre of an LTTE attempt to infiltrate Army defenses by hiding their cadres inside the vehicles of the returning aid convoy. The security force personnel who had been checking these vehicles at the roadblock at Mankerni last evening had observed three LTTE cadres disembarking from one of the vehicles around 9.00 p.m. The soldiers had managed to grab one of the cadres while the other two had managed to escape.

The LTTE are currently forcibly holding over 30,000 IDPs in the areas of Vakarai, Kathiraweli, and Panichcnkerni as a human shield and as part of an invidious strategy to protect themselves against any military action when carrying out attacks on the security forces.

The Government has proposed the creation of safe havens for IDPs in the Vakarai region. LTTE has not accepted this offer. The non – acceptance of this proposal for safe havens for IDPs re-inforces the position of the Government that the LTTE are using civilians as human shields to protect their cadres.

These actions by the LTTE to thwart the Government’s persistent efforts to deliver much needed humanitarian assistance puts to rest the case that the LTTE give first preference to achieving strategic goals than to provide much needed relief supplies to the IDPs of the North and East.

It is indeed regrettable also to note that the suffering of the IDPs in Vakarai which is the direct outcome of LTTE’s strategy to use innocent civilians for military objectives, has been manipulated by the pro - LTTE media and their supporters to blame the government for the desperate situation of the innocent civilians living in these areas.