LIVE AND LET LIVE

 
Published: Sunday 15 September 1996

Sri Lankan tribals fearing extinction of their tribe have appealed to the United Nations (UN) to save them. People belonging to the Wannyala-Atto, or forest people, lived for years in the jungles but had to disappear when the forests were declared as conservative areas in 1993.

They have been forced to adopt customs alien to them, said Uru Warige Wanniya, a representative of the tribe. More than 500 representatives of natives all over the world are currently in Geneva to plead their case with the UN working group on indigenous people.

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