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Interim Administration with Full Power should be established in the North-East

One third of the Jaffna City is under the High Security Zones (HSZ). The Jaffna Traders Union, in a letter to the Tamil National Leader, Mr. Veluppillai Prabhaharan, has complained that since several business centers are occupied as mini-camps, the business community is undergoing severe hardship. That letter goes on to state the following:

During the last 20 years tirelessly having fought to achieve the goal of Tamil Eelam for liberating Tamil people, now you have Signed the Cease fire Agreement (CFA) with the Government of Sri Lanka with the intention of gaining the permanent solution, so that the Tamils can live with the rights to self determination. For this, we express our sincere appreciations. It is our earnest desire that the Government should establish an Interim Administration in the Tamils' traditional homeland, the North-East of Sri Lanka, which would fulfil the longstanding aspirations of the Tamil People while restoring normalcy to their lives.

It has been one and a half years since signing the CFA, and yet any development and rehabilitation activities have not been properly implemented in the Tamils' traditional homeland.

In the name of HSZ, one third of our fertile land has been made as security zones. Displaced people are still living as refugees unable to be resettled. Consequently, the HSZ should be removed and the displaced people must be allowed to resettle, while the schools and places of worship are rehabilitated. Due to the mini-camps located in critical places not being removed since the signing of the CFA, the people there have been badly affected. Since the HSZ occupies one third of our land and many business buildings are being used as mini-camps, the business community is severely affected, no rehabilitation assistance has yet been provided to these buildings.

In order to restore normalcy in the peoples' lives and enable them to develop and grow their own economy, an interim administration vested with full authority must include land, finance, justice, law and security. To get such an interim administration, we certainly believe that you would get the full support of the Tamil people.

We would like to kindly remind you that the only aspiration of the Tamil people is a viable political solution with the right to self-determination.

18 October 2003

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