News from Tamil Eelam - 30 December 1997
	
GUNS TO DETERMINE OUTCOME OF JAFFNA ELECTIONS
	The Chandrika government has supplied large quantities of arms to
	pro-government Tamil groups contesting local elections in Jaffna,
	according to the BBC Sinhala service reporter Dinasena Rathugamage on
	air from Vavuniya. He further stated he received reliable information
	that these armed groups were planning to intimidate people with guns
	in order to secure votes for their members. He had interviewed PLOTE's
	MP for Vavuniya, Shanmuganathan, who said that they had been armed for
	their own security, and that the LTTE had not been weakened in Jaffna
	and Kilinochchi. But the PLOTE MP also said democratic principles had
	been thrown away and that guns played a major role in determining the
	outcome of the last elections held in Vavuniya. He said the same thing
	was going to happen to elections in Jaffna this time.
	
TAMIL GROUPS CONTESTING ELECTIONS ADD TO TAMIL PEOPLE'S PROBLEMS
	The bishop of Jaffna Thomas Soundranayagam has criticised the Tamil
	parties for agreeing to take part in the Jaffna elections, saying
	locals believed this would only add to their suffering. "Jaffna Tamils
	have undergone terrible suffering and the Tamils groups who arrived to
	contest the elections have only come to add to their suffering," the
	bishop said. He said it would have been good if these groups had
	boycotted the elections.  He went on to say that only people below the
	poverty line and the middle class is now living in Jaffna, while the
	educated and rich have left the place. It is to these downtrodden
	people that these groups are going to give further problems by staging
	these deceptive elections and misleading the outside world, the bishop
	suggested.
	
LTTE CASUALITIES
	LTTE captain Seralathan Subramniyam on Friday died in an unexpected
	clash with the occupying Sinhalese armed forces at Manthuvil (Jaffna).
	
(English translation of the news released by LTTE International Secretariat,
211 Katherine Road, London E6 1BU, United Kingdom.Tel:0181- 503 4294)