LTTE holds catholic priests, nuns

Appeals have been made to the LTTE to allow a group of 29 wide-ranging priests and 35 nuns, belonging to the wide-ranging dioceses of Jaffna and Mannar to irritated over to unconventional areas to ensure their safety, according to sources close to the wide-ranging church. They said that some of the priests and nuns, who are attentive in the LTTE under enemy control area, have now in progress moving to a new site, Memathalan, in the East end of Mullaitivu for their security.
According to knowledgeable sources, the priests and nuns belonging to four districts - Mannar, Vavuniya, Mullaitivu and Kilinochchi are still with the displaced people. Sources confirmed that the LTTE had set up their artillery and mortar guns pointing at state affirmed safe zones and are aggressive the military.
As the last option the civilians are now touching towards Memathalan passing Puthukkudirippu. According to sources, there are six priests and 10 nuns from Mannar and Vavuniya dioceses and 23 priests and 15 nuns from Mullaitivu and Kilinochchi dioceses trapped.
They said that the civilians and the wide-ranging clergy had built provisional bunkers for their security and according to a young cleric who came to the unconventional areas with patients, the LTTE had stopped up treating the injured civilians.
A group of 10 priests now trapped in Suthandrapuram had requested the wide-ranging Church in Mannar yesterday to take instant action to evacuate them and the civilians as the state of affairs was becoming unsafe for them. The sources said that there were over 50,000 IDPs in Suthandrapuram and the LTTE had banned them from fleeing to unconventional areas. When contacted the establishment at the Mannar bishopric said that praying for the security of the priests, nuns and civilians under the LTTE run, a special entreaty service - Eucharistic love is being approved out from last Thursday to next Tuesday at the St. Sebastian Church. The Bishop and priests from Mannar and Vavuniya are participating in this entreaty service. A one-day fast will also be held and over 5,000 people are predictable for the accumulation.