Even before the 2004 tsunami struck, many people in Sri Lanka relied on humanitarian support from aid organizations, but their numbers greatly increased on Boxing Day that year when the tidal wave swept over its coastal areas.

As if that weren’t tragic enough, the armed conflict between Sri Lankan government forces and the the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has rekindled this year.

It has since escalated in the northern and eastern parts of the island nation into an undeclared war under which the civilian population is particularly suffering.

Aid organizations have levelled accusations against the government, saying Colombo is trying to prevent aid from reaching places where it is most needed and was thereby risking the lives of many civilians.

In particular, the government wants to keep aid out of Tiger-controlled areas in the embattled north and east, aid groups charged.

“As long as aid volunteers are present in these areas, international observers are there as well,” said Dorothe Nett, a representative of German Agro Action.

“This is something that does not seem to be wanted (by the government).”

Aid organizations said they are afraid the government doesn’t want international observers to witness a looming humanitarian crisis and don’t want any witnesses to possible violence.

International observers have repeatedly charged both sides in the conflict with human rights violations. Civilians are regularly targeted for attack while both parties in the conflict blame one another for the killings.

In Muttur in north-eastern Sri Lanka, 17 local post-tsunami aid workers with a French organization were found shot to death in August. Of those victims, 16 were ethnic Tamils, and foreign observers blamed government forces for the massacre.

Even churches, hospitals and ambulances have become targets although it is often unclear who the attackers are.

Important donors like Norway, the European Union, United States and Japan have demanded guarantees for the safety of aid volunteers and their access to people in need.

Colombo, meanwhile, has cited safety concerns as well as the government’s wish to execute better control over the movement of aid groups as reasons for restricted access to the Tiger-held areas.

But the government cannot officially prohibit aid for LTTE-controlled regions because it is dependent on the goodwill of the international community as well.

At the same time, however, the government media has embarked on a hate campaign against foreign aid workers, accusing them of being LTTE sympathizers and even enriching themselves.

Even reputable organizations like the Red Cross have not been spared from the tirades.

In addition, international aid workers active in the north and east reported government-instigated chicanery. For example, the renewal of their work permits has become a matter of sheer luck, they said. Officials demand documents such as verified translations of foreign marriage certificates to even accept applications.

Convoys have also been turned back at government checkpoints and prevented from entering areas under LTTE control.

Apart from that, the government recently froze all assets of the Tamil-operated aid organization TRO on the accusation that the TRO funded weapons purchases by the Tigers - an accusation the TRO denied.

TRO project coordinator Arjunan Ethirveerasingam voiced concerns that Colombo might attempt to ‘starve out’ Tamils in the Tiger-held areas to force them to flee into government-controlled regions.

‘That would be using food as a weapon,’ he charged.

Ethirveerasingam warned of the threat of a ‘famine like in Ethiopia’ if the government continued to prevent food aid from reaching LTTE areas.

And it was not any more a matter of months for a famine to happen but rather a matter of weeks, he said.

Amid what international ceasefire monitors described as a deepening humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka’s Northeast, Tamil parliamentarians this week continued a sit-in protest in a bid to confront the government on the issue.

But their ‘satyagraha’ were ignored by the mainly Sinhala MPs as well as President Mahinda Rajapakse who visited Parliament.

Tamil MPs sat on the red carpeted floor of the Well of the House in front of the Speaker’s Chair for hours on several successive days during parliament sittings since last Tue. The protest was a sombre affair in contrast to the noisy protests the Tamil MPs have staged before.

But the MPs on both sides of the House continued with their business as usual with the government not bothering to come up with any kind of response to the Tamil National Alliance (TNA).

Only Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) leader Rauff Hakeem made any reference to the concerns raised by Mr. Senathirajah, saying the government was sending the wrong signals by not listening to the views expressed by the democratically elected representatives of the Tamil people.

The ‘satyagraha’ continued this week with no government assurances coming their way.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa himself visiting the parliament complex on Thursday mainly to check on the attendance of government MPs in parliament, the Sunday Times reported.

Ignoring the protesting Tamils, the President left after spending some time on his regular public relations exercise by chatting to MPs including those of the main Sinhala Opposition at the parliament lunch room, the paper said.

The Sunday Times’ lobby columnist observed: “with the indifferent attitude of the government towards their passive resistance, the TNA might soon revert back to its usual method of protesting. The Tamil MPs might feel that only violent and vociferous protests would bring any worthwhile response from this government.”

First driven from their homes by a Tamil Tiger warning, then forced to move back as the military emptied schools-turned-refugee camps, many residents in Sri Lanka's northern Jaffna peninsula are hungry and afraid.

Cut off from the rest of Sri Lanka by LTTE territory, surviving on dry rations shipped in by the state and living under the pall of daily murders and abductions, 9-year-old Calista Emmanuel's mother is too afraid to send her daughter to school.

Mindful of a boycott on lessons imposed by the pro-LTTE Jaffna students union, instead she makes her sit on the roadside near their coastal home to sell chicken drumsticks, coconuts and mangoes to bring in a few rupees.

"There is no normal life for us," she lamented. "If there was normalcy, there would be no shortage of food, no long queues. How can children go to school when their stomach is empty and they are awake from 3 a.m. because of shelling?"

The government and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have both pledged to resume peace talks after a five-month impasse, but a new chapter of the island's civil war continues to flare.

The military fires sporadic artillery and multi-barrel rocket fire towards LTTE territory. The Tigers fire artillery and mortar bombs. Each side always accuses the other of provoking confrontations, and analysts fear the violence will only deepen.

Civilians - hundreds of whom have died in crossfire in the north and east since the worst outbreak of fighting since a 2002 ceasefire erupted in late July - are trapped.

"This is a sad experience. I am still scared to live in this house," said newly-married Donald Nelson Wilfred, 29, standing by his beachside home in Jaffna. He was turfed out of a school where he had sought refuge after the Tigers warned the neighbourhood to clear out ahead of an imminent attack.

"Life was easy at the school," he said. "Our problem is we have to obey two masters."

Rights officials say 131 civilians have been killed on the peninsula since August, and that another 50 have "disappeared". Some people leave their houses at night to take refuge in churches for fear the LTTE’s naval arm will attack military outposts, before heading home at first light.

Many residents in almost entirely Tamil Jaffna town are gradually adapting to fuel, food and electricity shortages and a daily curfew, but many complain they are either not receiving food handouts or that rations are insufficient.

Fortnightly ration cards allot 4 kg of rice, 3 kg of flour, 1 kg of sugar and 750 grams of lentils per person over the age of 5. Unemployed receive them from free, while others must pay.

The town is in lock-down. Heavily armed soldiers man checkpoints at seemingly every corner, armoured trucks roar through town at high speed, and items like baby milk powder are out of stock.

Following its first official visit to India last month, Sri Lanka’s largest Tamil party, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) is "reassured" by Delhi’s thinking on the Tamil question in the island, party officials told reporters.

A delegation led Parliamentary Group leader R. Sampanthan held "cordial, comprehensive and productive" meetings with top Indian officials, including National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan, Minister of State for External Affairs E. Ahamed and Foreign Secretary-designate Shivshankar Menon, the sources said.

The TNA leadership hoped to meet with India’s Premier in future, but was pleased Dr. Manmohan Singh "is taking a personal interest in the Tamil question," a member of the TNA delegation told TamilNet.

A much-hoped for though unscheduled meeting with India’s Premier did not take place, but the top Indian officials the TNA delegation met with had assured them that Dr. Singh was taking “a personal interest” in the Tamil question and would engage directly with President Mahinda Rajapakse on developments in Sri Lanka, according to the TNA sources.

Speaking to reporters in India later, Mr. Sampanthan, who was upbeat on the outcome of the India visit, said, “the visit has brought New Delhi a lot closer to the Tamils of Sri Lanka.”

“After a long time we (Tamils) have been able to re-establish contact with New Delhi,” he said.

India had maintained a distance from Tamil groups from Sri Lanka since the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, which Delhi blames on the LTTE.

Asked if the TNA’s inability to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on this visit was a snub, Mr. Sampanthan said no date and time had been fixed for a meeting.

The TNA leadership was keen to meet Dr. Singh in the future and would continue to keep him briefed on developments through the top-level Indian officials they met instead, TNA officials told Tamilnet.

The TNA delegation met with the top Indian officials on Wednesday Sep 21 and Thursday Sep. 22.

On Wednesday the delegation met with Minister of State for External Affairs E. Ahamed and Foreign Secretary-designate Shivshankar Menon for a lengthy discussion on the Tamil question.

On Thursday they met with National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan for an hour-long discussion, from 4 to 5 p.m. on the humanitarian and security crisis in Sri Lanka’s Northeast.

Their visit to Delhi was arranged around an invitation by the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA), which is India’s premier foreign affairs think tank, enjoying close links with the Indian ministry of External Affairs.

In the wake of the meetings, the TNA delegation was “greatly encouraged at the extent to which [the Indian government] was already aware of the considerable difficulties of the Tamil people in Sri Lanka,” the TNA parliamentarian said.

Among the issues discussed were the severe humanitarian crisis amongst the Tamils of Sri Lanka, the military agenda of the Sri Lankan state and the Norwegian peace-process, according to the TNA sources.

 “We are here to urge India to get the Sri Lankan government to behave in a civilised manner, to stop the killing of innocent Tamil civilians by aerial bombings. The present situation is like how it was in 1983, when as many as 250,000 people were displaced,” Mr. Sampanthan said.

“I do not think anyone else can play as effective a role as India in restoring peace between the Sinhalese and Tamil ethnic groups,” he said, insisting that LTTE was not averse to such a settlement.

India’s former spy chief has criticised Delhi for not engaging with the both the Liberation Tigers and Sri Lanka’s government to prevent the slide into conflict.

"India's inability to fully comprehend the ground realities in Sri Lanka and, hamstrung by the past, its reluctance to do business with LTTE to help evolve an equitable settlement may prove to be a monumental foreign policy blunder,” J.K. Sinha, former head of India’s external intelligence agency said.

“India’s ambivalence interspersed with gratuitous hostile statements towards the LTTE has closed its option to proactively bring about a settlement of the ethnic crisis through negotiations”

"India allowed the gradual erosion of the peace process and remained a virtual bystander," Singh, who headed the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) until last year, says in the latest issue of ‘Indian Defence Review.’

Singh was head of RAW in the past few years during which the 2002 Ceasefire Agreement has disintegrated in a cycle of violence first between Army-backed-paramilitaries and the LTTE and lately between the military and the Tigers.

"Instead of building on the positive developments at Oslo, India allowed its misgivings and suspicions with regard to the LTTE to stifle any follow-up policy initiative," Singh said, in reference to the LTTE’s agreement with the then Sri Lankan government to explore federalism as a solution.

“India was content to remain in the margins. [But] the resumption of civil war in Sri Lanka portends the worst for that country and for India's security concerns in the region,” he says.

"The gradual erosion of the peace process and the resumption of the conflict is a major setback for India and to its security concerns vis-à-vis Sri Lanka."

Singh noted that “India cannot help the Sri Lankan government militarily to defeat the LTTE because of the sentiments in Tamil Nadu and the compelling political constraints that it entails.”

“[But] India’s ambivalence interspersed with gratuitous hostile statements towards the LTTE has closed its option to proactively bring about a settlement of the ethnic crisis in Sri Lanka through a process of negotiations,” he also says.

"India's ambivalence about the LTTE and its inability to pull its weight in Sri Lanka in favour of the peace process shall cost India dear. India is now caught between the devil and the deep sea,” Sinha warns.

Singh slammed the seizure by President Chandrika Kumaratunga of three ministries from the government of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in late 2003, just days after the LTTE submitted a proposal to set up an interim administration in Sri Lanka's northeast.

"India and the international community should have done all that was possible to prevent (Chandrika) from resorting to the politically dishonest and unconstitutional measure which really scuttled the peace process," Sinha said.

"[Meanwhile] It is indeed ironical that Colombo, which conspired with LTTE to force the return of the Indian Army (in 1990), now looks up to New Delhi to rein in LTTE and play a decisive role as the regional superpower to bring about a durable peace."

India this week called for "special efforts" to end the upsurge of violence in Sri Lanka and said New Delhi supported a political settlement that would not break up the island.

"We believe that today more than ever before special efforts are required to strengthen the ceasefire," India's Youth Affairs and Sports Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar said

Violence since December in Sri Lanka has claimed the lives of at least 1,500 people, according to official count.

Aiyar said India supported moves for a "devolution package that could command consensus among the major political parties, restore ethnic harmony and expeditiously address the legitimate aspirations of all sections of Sri Lankan society."

He said he was also meeting with President Mahinda Rajapakse to discuss the Indian model of a devolution of power in the country, which has a large ethnic Sinhalese majority.

New Delhi is strongly backing efforts by Norway to broker peace in Sri Lanka where an Oslo-arranged truce has tenuously held since February 2002.

Delhi had an "abiding interest" in the sovereignty, unity and the territorial integrity of the island republic, which lies off the south Indian coast, Aiyar also said, at a lecture to mark the 47th anniversary of the assassination of the island's premier Solomon Bandaranaike.

Speaking in India, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentary Group leader R. Sampanthan said “Sri Lanka's constitution is like an albatross.”

“It permits the dismissal of an elected government after a year. It encourages colonisation by Sinhalese in Tamil areas. It discriminates on the basis of language. You cannot find a solution to the Sri Lanka-LTTE problem within the Lankan Constitution.”

US authorities have charged six Asian men with conspiracy to export arms and ammunition to the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka and some unknown customers in Indonesia.

Among these, three have been charged additionally by federal authorities in Baltimore, Maryland, with crimes of conspiracy to provide material support and money laundering to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a designated foreign terrorist organisation.

While three of the defendants hail from Singapore, two are from Indonesia and one from Sri Lanka, authorities said.

The sourcing included for a variety of weapons including surface to air missiles, grenade launchers and machine guns.

According to the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the defendants were arrested in Guam after travelling there to attempt to purchase night vision devices, sniper rifles, submachine guns with suppressors and grenade launchers to be used by the LTTE or unknown customers in Indonesia.

Four of the defendants were acting at the direction of senior Tamil Tigers leadership in Sri Lanka, US authorities said.

"The Tamil Tigers relies upon brokers and supporters throughout the world to acquire military weaponry and launder money in its attempt to violently overthrow the elected government of Sri Lanka.

"They have waged a civil war in Sri Lanka which has cost tens of thousands of lives, and often use suicide bombers. We will not allow any such terrorist organisation and its middlemen to use the US as a source of supply for weapons, technology and financial resources," US Attorney Rod Rosenstein said.

"Arming a radical organisation with more than 200 suicide bombings to its credit jeopardises the security of the United States and nations around the globe," said Julie L Myers, Assistant Secretary for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in a statement.

The investigation is continuing, authorities said.

According to officials a three count indictment has been returned on September 19, 2006, charging a national of Singapore and two citizens of Indonesia with conspiracy to export arms and munitions, conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and money laundering.

A complaint was also filed in the US territory of Guam charging Thirunavukarasu Varatharasa, a citizen of Sri Lanka, with being a member of that conspiracy as to the export of arms and munitions.

Authorities have alleged that starting in April 2006, the defendants conspired to export state-of-the-art firearms, machine guns and ammunition, surface to air missiles, night vision goggles and other items to the Tamil Tigers.

The defendants acted as brokers between manufacturers of military technology and the Tamil Tigers, requesting price quotes and negotiating the purchases.

In one instance, on May 3, 2006, undercover ICE agents were given a list of 53 military weapons by one of the defendants that including sniper rifles, machine guns and grenade launchers, that he wished to acquire for the Tamil Tigers.

Officials have said that an indictment is not a finding of guilt and that an individual charged by indictment is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty at some later criminal proceedings.

Aside from the agents of the ICE the agencies involved in the sting operation included the FBI, the Defence Criminal Investigative Service and the Baltimore City Police.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister, Mangala Samaraweera, to make a concerted effort in planned peace talks with the Tamil Tigers, AFP quoted a senior US official as saying Saturday.

Meeting with Mr. Samaweera on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, Ms. Rice voiced strong support for Norwegian-mediated peace efforts in Sri Lanka.

"She urged the government to engage in a focused, concerted way with the Norwegians as they try to start another round of negotiations with the LTTE," the senior US official told AFP on condition he not be identified.

Rice and Samaweera also discussed human rights issues, and notably the massacre last month of 17 aid workers from the French aid group Action Contre la Faim, AFP reported.

The internationally-staffed Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission blamed the killings on Sri Lankan security forces.

Ms. Rice told Samaweera she was "encouraged" by the government's decision to let international investigators join a probe into the incident, the official also said.

Relatives of alleged Tamil Tiger supporter Suresh Sriskandarajah pledged $445,000 last week to ensure he won't flee if released from jail while awaiting extradition to the United States.

Defence lawyer Clayton Ruby said the University of Waterloo engineering graduate - who has no criminal record - would never betray family members willing to put up "everything they have" as bail.

"This is the kind of young person you can trust when he says to you 'I will surrender,' " he told Justice Pat Flynn in Superior Court in Kitchener.

Federal prosecutor Nick Devlin, however, produced seized financial records to argue Sriskandarajah, 26, has both the means and "connections" to flee to Sri Lanka even after surrendering his passport.

The bail hearing was attended by more than 20 of Sriskandarajah's friends and relatives.

Sriskandarajah has been in custody for more than a month after he was arrested in a joint FBI-RCMP investigation into support for the Tamil Tigers.

He is portrayed in FBI documents as the leader of four suspected supporters with ties to UW and the Tamil student association on campus.

In all, 12 men -- including seven Canadians -- were arrested in a plot allegedly involving an attempt to buy weapons, bribery, smuggling, money laundering and financial aid through front charities.

U.S. officials want Sriskandarajah turned over to face charges he helped buy equipment, laundered money and used student couriers to smuggle goods into areas of northern Sri Lanka controlled by the Tamil Tigers.

A thin, clean-cut man, he listened attentively throughout the bail hearing and bowed to Flynn before taking the witness stand.

"I swear to God I will go back" to the US if extradited, he told the judge.

Other witnesses included his mother, Ganaghamalar Kathiresu, and his younger brother, Suthan Sriskandarajah.

Both said they knew little about his finances and never discussed his views on the Tamil Tigers at any length.

"I understand this is a very serious issue, but he is my brother," said Suthan, 23. "I'm willing to support him no matter what."

Devlin said a notebook seized at Sriskandarajah's house in a middle-class Waterloo neighbourhood showed he attended a conference in Sri Lanka in late 2004 that was organized by the Tamil Tigers.

It appeared to have been signed, he said, by other supporters Sriskandarajah met there.

"Dear Brother," began one of the entries, which was translated into English by investigators. "I laud your great service of embracing the youngsters and facilitate them joining our war."

A full-time student for six years before he graduated from UW in June, Sriskandarajah testified he made just $24,000 in 2005 from a co-op job placement.

Devlin said that is at odds with evidence he was the main supporter for his family -- including his mother, stepfather, two brothers in university and a third younger brother.

He also said seized records show Sriskandarajah paid $100,000 into a credit card account in a short period earlier this year and handled almost $500,000 for an electronics company in five weeks.

Ruby submitted several glowing reference letters on Sriskandarajah's academic record and community involvement.

He had a 95 per cent average in his last year of high school in Toronto and a professor at UW wrote he had never given a perfect mark in 36 years before Sriskandarajah earned one.

Tamils in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, have appealed for government help to tackle a spate of abductions.

They say the police and government have not done enough to investigate the kidnappings of nearly 50 Tamils in recent weeks.

Campaigners met Sri Lanka's president Mahinda Rajapakse recently to request more protection.

The police say they have not been given enough information by victims' families to carry out investigations.

Those kidnapped include an eminent Tamil journalist working for a private media network in Colombo.

Mano Gaheshan, leader of the Western Peoples' Front, a Tamil political party, told the BBC that that he had sent a detailed list of 20 missing Tamils to the Sri Lankan human rights minister.

But no action had been taken so far and more people had gone missing since then, he said.

The MP said that some kidnap victims had been released after reportedly paying huge ransoms.

A few have been found dead, but the fate of many is unknown.

The police have asked the families of victims to provide them with more information. They say that without adequate information from the victims' families it will be "extremely difficult" to carry the investigations forward.

But they also accuse Tamil activists of deliberately engaging in "false propaganda" to malign them.

"How can we conduct an investigation if they refuse to reveal vital details? This is just nonsense," Inspector General of Police (IGP) Chandra Fernando told the BBC.

The relatives of the victims, however, say they are afraid of speaking out due to the continuous abductions and killings.

Many others, who have informed the local police, say they have not yet been given information about the fate of their loved ones.

The national Human Rights Commission (HRC) told the BBC that it would initiate investigations into the abductions.

Also, a cross-party group of Tamil parliamentarians has raised the issue with Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and urged him to act to prevent more abductions.

An eminent journalist, Nadarajah Guruparan, working for a leading local private media network, was kidnapped and released within a day in the last week of August.

He was unable to identify his kidnappers.

Another man, Sothilingam Krishanthan, 21, disappeared on 3 September as he arrived in Colombo from the eastern town of Trincomalee.

A close relative of Mr Krishanthan said that he rang her from his mobile on his way to Colombo on the night train.

"Since then, there is no trace of him. He had all his identity documents with him," she told the BBC.

"We informed the national Human Rights Commission, the ICRC and went to every police station in Colombo."

Sinnakkalee Karunaharan, a travel agent in the capital, Colombo, has been missing since 27 December.

Family members, who wished to remain anonymous, told the BBC that he was abducted by a group of men in a white van in Wellawatta.

The image of the "white van" invokes memories of the "era of terror" in the late 1980s when death squads abducted and killed thousands of Sinhala youth in the south of the country.

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) says the "white van culture" is now re-appearing in Colombo to threaten the Tamil community.

The police insist that they will do what is necessary to protect witnesses and complainants.

"We will protect them, send them abroad if needed, we are not afraid of anybody. Just give us information," IGP Fernando told the BBC.

But Colombo MP Mano Gaheshan says Tamils have "lost faith in the police system".

"It is up to the police to build confidence with the public," he says.

"It is their duty to protect the public, not the abductors and murderers."

Apart from the deaths caused by shelling and other acts of war, 131 people have been victims of individual killings, the Jaffna office of the Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission (SLHRC) said in a report submitted to its Colombo Head office last week.

The SLHRC report listed, 87 residents as forcibly disappeared in the months of August and September, 50 in August and 37 until Monday last week.

44 Tamil civilians have been reported missing after arrest by the Sri Lankan armed forces in the months of August and September in Jaffna district.

Of the 44 residents who were missing after arrest by the Sri Lankan Army as reported to the SLHRC by the relatives of the victims, 26 reports were registered in August and 18, so far in September.

13 residents have been forcibly disappeared in September after abduction by the "white van" squad believed to be operated by Sri Lanka Army.

According to the report, 131 residents were killed in the Jaffna peninsula in the months of August and September by extra judicial killings, retaliatory firings after mine explosions. In all, 64 in August and 67 until Monday last week.

Apart from the individual killings, around 40 civilians were reportedly killed in Allaipiddy in artillery shelling in August. So far, 25 deaths have been verified by humanitarian and legal sources. Relatives of 12 more civilian victims have appealed to the Jaffna regional office of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka seeking help to remove the bodies lying inside the houses located in Ward No: 4 of Allaipiddy.

11 civilians were killed in Thenmaradchchy since August 11 following continued SLA artillery shelling and Multi-barrel rocket attacks on civilian centres in the region.

The government of President Mahinda Rajapakse denied the involvement of Sri Lankan forces in the disappearances and classified the reports of forced disappearances as "Tamil Tiger propaganda."

The SLA has imposed restrictions for internally displaced families to return to their homes located close to the Mannar public playground, where a SLA camp is located. At a conference held in the Mannar district secretariat with V. Visuvalingam, Government Agent in the chair, Army officials present announced the conditions to be met by IDPs to return to their homes and to avoid any retaliation from the SLA in the event of attack on them.

Families had fled from their homes located near the Mannar public playground due to fear following retaliatory attacks by the SLA soldiers stationed in the Mannar public playgrounds. These IDPs have been residing with their relatives elsewhere in the area for the last two months unable to return their homes.

SLA officials attended the conference announced that all IDPS could return to their homes if they did not erect concrete walls and fences with any other materials around their premises – only barbed wire fence would be allowed, enabling SLA soldiers located in the Mannar public playgrounds to monitor movements of persons in every house occupied by the IDP family during day and night.

SLA officials further said that occupants should not come out of their houses during nights whenever attacks targeting SLA soldiers are launched but they should be in their houses with lights on and without raising alarm.

They would not be harmed if they follow the instructions issued by the SLA. SLA soldiers have been clearly instructed to provide security in emergency situation, SLA official stressed.

Occupants could come out of their houses in emergency situation during nights carrying lighted hurricane lamps. The occupants should not allow any outsider not registered in their house-hold register to stay with them.

Any intimidation and threat by SLA soldiers could be brought to the notice of SLA higher authorities for taking action, SLA officials added.