The Presidential Secretariat yesterday angrily reacted to reports of death from starvation in the North saying that the government has taken all possible measures to provide food and medicine to the people of the North including internally displaced persons (IDPs).

These included IDPs in places arranged for their shelter and care by the government as well as those who continued to be held as a human shield by the LTTE, the Presidential Secretariat said in a news release.

It said that the media reports on starvation were based on a letter to the Mullaitivu GA by Dr. Varatharajah, the Regional Director of Health Services there. His letter dated March 4 referred to nine starvation deaths.

The Secretary to the Ministry of Healthcare and Nutrition had made inquiries about this from Dr. Varatharajah who had said that his report to the GA attributing starvation as the cause of death of 13 persons whose bodies were brought to the Puthumattalam hospital was not based on clinical or scientific evidence as there was no autopsies held to ascertain the cause of death.

The Presidential Secretariat said that it had "reliably learnt" that Dr. Varatharajah’s letter to the GA had been picked up by a diplomat engaged in relief work.

He had brought it to the notice of the UN and this in turn had been picked up by an international news agency and later used by the Human Rights Watch (HRW).

The HRW report has been publicized by the same news agency as well as pro LTTE websites.

"None of those who repeated the unsubstantiated statement by Dr. Varatharajah had taken the trouble to verify this from the Ministry of Healthcare and Nutrition," the release said.

It also said that on a recent occasion a lot of publicity had been given to an e-mail "from the same Dr. Varatharajah" stating that there were at lest 300 IDP deaths and over 1,000 injured in cross fire in the North.

"Upon official inquiry, Dr. Varatharajah categorically denied having issued any such e-mail, and its contents. Following this denial, Associated Press that issued the news item based on the same doctor’s alleged claim, recalled its story," the release said.