LTTE Headquarters,
                                                Tamil Eelam.
                                                04. January 1997
PRESS RELEASE
NEWS FROM TAMIL EELAM

FAMILY BOMBED BY SRI LANKAN ARMY
        Sri Lankan army shells targeting the Tamil village of Samanthiaru
        have killed an entire family. Residents of the Batticaloa village
        say indiscriminate artillery fire was launched from Vuvunathivu
        army camp creating mayhem and panic. The Sri Lankan army seems to
        have stepped up its bombing of Tamil residential villages in
        recent months. The unfortunate victims of this incident were a
        recently married couple and their first child. Their names were
        Krishanapillai Pavalasingam (25), Pama (25) and Jeevitha (1).

TAMIL MAN SHOT IN FRONT OF WIFE AND CHILDREN
        Sri Lankan soldiers in army-occupied Meesalai in Thenmaradchy
        (Jaffna) have executed a Tamil man in front of his house. The
        troops stormed Nagalingam Varapragasam's home while his wife and
        six children were having dinner with him and without explanation
        hauled him into the street where they sprayed bullets on him .
        His wife too was assaulted when she tried to save her husband.
        Atrocities like this in Sri Lankan army-occupied areas have
        escalated to disturbing levels.

COMMANDOS RAPE MARRIED WOMAN
        Sri Lankan commandos of the Mansoor Tileworks army camp
        (Batticaloa) have raped and caused grievous injury to a Tamil
        woman carrying food to her husband. She was on her way to a paddy
        field where her husband was working when Sri Lankan STF troops
        intercepted her, raped her at gun-point then beat her viciously
        about the body. She is currently undergoing treatment at
        Batticaloa hospital.

MSF STOPPED FROM SERVING WAHARAI TAMILS
        The Sri Lankan military in Batticaloa has ordered the French
        medical organisation MSF not to offer its services to Tamils in
        Waharai, a region the Sri Lankan military has been unable to
        occupy. The order comes amid a series of government measures to
        cripple the Tamils of Waharai by stopping any form of relief for
        them. Buses have been stopped from going there and all travellers
        are routinely searched to make sure they are not carrying food,
        medicine or other essential goods. Tamils living in unoccupied
        areas require a great deal of basic medicines and some foods from
        outside which they cannot produce locally. The Sri Lankan
        government uses their dependency as a weapon of war to make these
        Tamils submit to its military authority.

NAVY ATTACKS TWO TAMIL FISHERMEN
        The Sri Lankan navy has once again fired on Tamil fishermen this
        time badly injuring two. The wounded men are receiving intensive
        medical treatment but remain in a critical condition. The Sri
        Lankan navy has become notorious around Tamil coastal waters for
        its indiscriminate shooting of ordinary fishermen. Casualties
        from such shootings are regularly claimed by the defence ministry
        as being LTTE fighters.

HOSPITAL CRISIS WORSENS IN TAMIL AREAS
        Tharmapuram hospital is reportedly functioning with only one
        qualified doctor after Sri Lankan military forces ordered the
        rest to go to army-run Jaffna. It is said to receive up to 700
        patients a day, but can only accommodate 75. The maternity ward
        in this rural hospital in unoccupied Kilinochchi district is said
        to be virtually falling apart, the result of Sri Lanka's
        persistent neglect of all hospitals in Tamil areas. It is
        reported that on some days the same doctor travels to all three
        hospitals in Kilinochchi district - Tharmapuram, Ramanathapuram
        and Vattakachchi - because the staff situation is so dire.

        Meanwhile Pooneryn hospital, which had been functioning only two
        days a week, has had to stop its services altogether for lack of
        medical staff and supplies. Local Tamil people have become
        stranded without any sort of care. Sri Lanka uses denial of food
        and medicines to Tamil areas as weapons to force Tamils to give
        in to its military forces.

EDUCATION SUFFERS - MULLAITIVU
        Mullaitivu's student population has soared to over 50,000 after
        an influx of Tamil families displaced from a series of recent Sri
        Lankan military operations. More than half the student population
        are in fact displaced people. The educational authorities in
        Mullaitivu have been unable to cope with the increase and
        educational standards are dropping rapidly as a result.


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/ Fax: 0181-470 8593)