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Wednesday, April 22, 2009 - 10.29 GMT |
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150,000 liberated and still more to come |
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By early afternoon today (April 22) 3630
more civilians who had been held hostage by
the LTTE in the No Fire Zone entered the
cleared areas in government territory,
bringing the number of civilians who have
escaped to freedom since April 20, to
83,300.
This brings the total number of civilians in
the Safe Zone of the government in the North
East of Sri Lanka to be in excess of
150,000.
Before the influx of civilians began on
Monday April 20, there were already more
than 65,000 civilians who had fled the LTTE
to the Safe Zone.
Government has stepped up relief supplies
including food, medicines and other
essential items to meet the needs of the
large number of civilians surging in to the
Safe Zone. Public Officials have been
alerted under instructions from President
Mahinda Rajapaksa to take all necessary
steps to serve the needs of these people, as
well as others who continue to come over
from the LTTE held area.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa has told British
Prime Minister Gordon Brown there was no
necessity for a pause a military action as
requested by the British leader, in view of
this exodus of civilians from the hold of
the LTTE.
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