Clothing blockade of Vanni
One aspect of the blockade of basic items into Vanni that is not well known is that of blocking clothing. For six months now, Sri Lanka Government has blocked all types of clothing being brought into Vanni for sale. This has started to bite the business and the people now as the stocks have started to run very low.
During the early ceasefire period business people could purchase clothing in large scale and bring them into Vanni in their lorries. This was stopped more than six months ago. Since then business people tried to bring clothing one suitcase at times and eventually this too was stopped. Presently people coming into Vanni are permitted to bring one or two sets of clothing and some say that even these are deliberately crushed by the army at the checkpoint so that it cannot be sold. Clothing shop owners say that MPCS was permitted to bring a quota of clothing but even this is being blocked by the military at the Vavuniya checkpoint. 
Shop owners say that if the situation continues they will have to close their shops. They say that this will badly affect their employees many of whom have displaced. Due to this the price of clothing has more than tripled affecting the people already in a tragic situation. Even the clothes donated by Tamilnadu/India for the Vanni IDPs had been so far blocked by the Sri Lanka military at Vavuniya.
12 December 2008
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Europe which has a total population of 800 million is made up of 45 language based nation states. South Asia which has a total population of one billion, (1000 million) is comprised of four states. Who is preventing and therefore benefiting by limiting new nation-states in South Asia?
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