LTTE Headquarters,
                                                Tamil Eelam.
                                                02. April 1997


PRESS RELEASE
NEWS FROM TAMIL EELAM

TAMIL FISHERMEN TARGETED BY ARMY AND NAVY
        Last Sunday S.Jeevaratnam, a fisherman with a large family, was
        grievously injured after being shot while fishing in the Pathalai
        lagoon. He is being treated in Batticaloa hospital but is not out
        of danger.
        
        Tamil fishermen in the northeast are facing tremendous
        difficulties making a living because the Sri Lankan military
        routinely fires at them. The navy targets Tamils fishing off the
        coast while the army shoots those fishing in interior lagoons. It
        has become impossible in many cases for these traditional Tamil
        fishing families to feed themselves as they are afraid to venture
        into fishing waters. The activities of the Sri Lankan military in
        this matter are sanctioned by the Sri Lankan government which has
        imposed restricted fishing rights to Tamil fishermen. A ban
        applies to inland and off-shore fishing. It is this injustice to
        Tamil fisherman which the LTTE wanted the government to withdraw
        during direct negotiations in October 1994. The government was
        not willing to remove the unjust ban then. But what is more it
        still continues to practice it with greater ferocity against
        Tamil fisherman under its current sinister war called the "war
        for peace". LTTE is committed to defend the Tamil fishermen by
        resisting the actions of the Sri Lankan armed forces.
        
        Life is made harder by the fact that the fishermen are not given
        any food relief by the government to compensate for this terrible
        injustice.
        
        The government agent for Batticaloa, Mr A.K. Pathmanathan, was
        recently asked why food stamps to these desperate Tamil families
        had also been stopped. He said that the government's Samurdhi
        scheme would eventually operate. When it was put to him that this
        scheme only caters to Sinhala areas and would not be applied to
        the northeast in the foreseeable future he replied that he was
        personally helpless in this matter and that all the decisions
        were being made in Colombo.

INVASION OF PRIVACY REACHES INTOLERABLE HEIGHTS
        Occupied Batticaloa is home to some of the worst forms of
        military interference in the private lives of Tamils. Sri Lankan
        soldiers frequently break into people's homes without warning and
        take away Tamil boys and girls with impunity. The night of Good
        Friday was particularly unsettling. More than twenty Tamil
        youngsters were taken from their homes, mainly in Puliyanthivu.
        None of them have been seen again to this date.

BOY MERCILESSLY STABBED BY ARMY IN JAFFNA
        A Tamil boy of 18 has been found in a shallow pit in
        army-controlled Jaffna. Kandasamy Rajitharan's body was covered
        with gruesome knife-cuts. The abandoned body was found at
        Vatharavathai (Puttur division). The Sinhala army occupying Tamil
        Jaffna has been responsible for countless similar attacks on
        Tamil youth.

AKKARAYAN HOSPITAL UNDER PRESSURE
        Akkarayan hospital is under severe strain due to prolonged
        government negligence. Each day the hospital is inundated with
        patients coming for treatment. Around 200 people per day are
        admitted for blood tests but there are only two lab technicians
        available. For decades, hospitals in Tamil areas have not been
        adequately supplied. This has been the case under successive
        Sinhala-dominated governments, but the current Chandrika
        government has inflicted the worst damage yet experienced by the
        Tamil population. Today the condition of government hospitals in
        Tamil areas is a matter of grave concern, with some already
        having closed down due to acute staff and medical shortages.

POSTAL SERVICE STOPPED
        The Sri Lankan government has put a stop to postal services
        coming in and out of Vanni. The Tamil people of Vanni are now
        denied access to relatives and friends outside the region. It is
        part of Sri Lanka's concerted effort to cut links between the
        outside world and those directly facing Sri Lankan military
        aggression.

SKIN DISEASES SPREADING
        Tharmapuram in Kilinochchi is now rife with skin diseases among
        the local population. Although a small rural hospital exists in
        this densely populated region it suffers from a chronic shortage
        of doctors and supplies. Therefore the men, women and children
        here continue to be deprived of their right to treatment. Sri
        Lanka stops medicines going to civilians in the Tamil Vanni
        region as part of its policy of crippling the Tamil nation.

NUTRITION CENTRES OPEN IN KANDAWALAI
        Nutrition centres have been opened by the Tamils Rehabilitation
        Organisation (TRO) in conjunction with the LTTE administration
        and the Kandawalai Development Society. The new centres cater
        especially to children under 12 and pre- and post-natal cases.
        They are functioning in Santha displaced persons colony,
        Ankeyatkanni colony, Kannakipuram and Kattaikadu.

	
Political Committee,
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam

(English translation of the LTTE statement released by
LTTE International Secretariat, 211 Katherine Road, London E6 1BU,
United Kingdom. Tel:0181- 503 4294 / Fax: 0181-470 8593)