PRESS RELEASE

Five Hundred Tons of Food and Medical Aid to be sent to Northern Sri Lanka - British celebrities, MPs and Health professionals will gather for the launch and signing ceremony in Central London, Tuesday 31 March, 2009 between 13.00 - 16.00

A number of charities have come together to assist the “Mercy Mission to Vanni”. (www.vannimission.org)

Act Now, Tamil Health Organisation (THO), Tamil Aid, White Pigeon, Technical Association of Tamils (TAOT) and The Tamil Support Foundation (TTSF), Tamil Schools Sports Association (TSSA), Hindu Temples and Churches are preparing to send more than 500 tons of food, medicine and medical teams to help the civilians in the Vanni affected by the ongoing war in Sri Lanka. This mission aims to provide desperately needed medical supplies for thousands of sick and injured people, and raise awareness of the suffering of the civilians in the conflict zone.

Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, in a statement on 13 March 2009 stated that bombing and shelling by the Sri Lanka Armed Forces in the so called ’safe zone’ has killed 2,800 Tamil civilians and left 7,000 more injured since the beginning of 2009. The UN and international humanitarian agencies have been denied access to the region since September 2008, leaving many without adequate food, water or medical assistance. 16 persons have recently died of starvation and more than 10 babies have died from diarrhoea.

Dr T. Varatharajah, a senior Sri Lankan health official in the region where the conflict is taking place, says that the last major medical facility in the ‘Safe Zone’ territory has almost stopped functioning due to a medicine shortage.

The mission will deliver a wide range of medicines, from pain-killers, antibiotics and anaesthetic drugs and food supplies to the civilians being denied humanitarian assistance in northern Sri Lanka, where a quarter of a million people are trapped by the fighting. A professional medical team hopes to join the mission at the last port and travel to the shores of Mullaitivu. The supplies have been donated at various collection centres throughout London and from other British cities, and the trip is being funded by the generosity of British supporters and others throughout the world.

The Vanni Mission ship will bring life saving supplies into the region, but our work doesn’t stop there, we will continue to call attention to the situation in Sri Lanka until this war against its own civilians is stopped?”

Details of Event:

Date:                            Tuesday 31 March, 2009

Event Time:                 13.00 - 16.00

Press Conference:        15.00

Location:                     The Royal Horse Guards

1 Whitehall Place

2 Whitehall Court

London SW1A 2EJ

http://www.theroyalhorseguards.co.uk/index.html

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