LTTE Headquarters,
                                                Tamil Eelam.
                                                27. February 1997


PRESS RELEASE
NEWS FROM TAMIL EELAM

ARMY WARNS TAMILS - NOT MORE THAN 4 TO GATHER
	The Sri Lankan army in Valaichchenai (Batticaloa) has made it an
	offence for more than four Tamils to meet in public. If they do,
	they risk arrest and imprisonment under emergency powers. The
	announcement to residents comes as relations between the army and
	Tamil civilians in Batticaloa - especially Valaichchenai - hits
	an all-time low. It is a very tense situation at present with
	army patrols on the roads day and night. Many people are afraid
	to be seen in public at all. On Tuesday, 50 Tamils were rounded
	up and taken away in army vehicles. They have not been seen
	since. The whereabouts of another 200 who were arrested last week
	are also unknown. The Sri Lankan media has chosen not to report
	or investigate these incidents. As a result, whilst the civil
	liberties of Tamils are being steadily eroded in army-controlled
	parts the international community remains unaware of the
	magnitude of the predicament being faced by the island's Tamils.

MEANWHILE IN THE SOUTH...
	The witchhunt against Tamil civilians in southern parts of the
	country continues unabated with the arrest in Wennapuwa of two
	young men employed by the Sri Lanka Coconut Board. Security
	forces also arrested another Tamil person in Hendala on the same
	day.

LTTE ORGANISES TEMPORARY SHELTER FOR DISPLACED
	The LTTE administration in Mullaitivu has organised temporary
	accommodation for Tamils displaced by earlier Sri Lankan
	government offensives in Kilinochchi and Jaffna which forced
	people onto streets and into dangerous jungle terrain. Residents
	of Mullaitivu have approved an LTTE initiative to accommodate
	displaced people in their own homes while building work on new
	shelters is carried out. After two years of government offensives
	in the north the only tangible result has been the disorientation
	and destitution of the Tamil population.

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)