The Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP) representatives at their meeting with the French Ambassador to Sri Lanka Jean Bernade de Vaivre complained about the problems faced by the civilians in the North and East due to the LTTE’s atrocities.
The EPDP delegation, headed by its leader Hindu Affairs Minister Douglas Devananda had told the French envoy that civilians were facing severe hardships due protection money extracted by the LTTE, EPDP spokesman Nelson Edirisinghe said.
They had complained that people in these areas were very poor and therefore found it impossible to comply with the LTTE order to pay ‘taxes’. Those who fail to pay the money, they had pointed out, had to undergo punishment following kangaroo trials by the LTTE.
The LTTE continued to recruit children as combatants but no one seem to be able to do anything about it. For no one dared stand up to the LTTE for fear of death, the EPDP members had told the Ambassador calling upon France and other powerful members of the international community to intervene to save the hapless civilians ‘trapped in the areas controlled by the LTTE in the North and the East.’
The EPDP is expected to have a series of other foreign diplomats to apprise them of the LTTE violence against civilians.
(http://www.island.lk/2004/09/24/news5.html)
