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

MILITARY BOMBS CIVILIANS TO AVENGE LOSSES
	The Sri Lankan airforce is indiscriminately bombing Tamil
	residential areas around Elephant Pass and Paranthan
	(Kilinochchi) near where the LTTE yesterday launched a major
	attack against Sri Lankan forces. Full details of yesterday's
	attack are still emerging but there are known to be many Sri
	Lankan military casualties.
	
	Soon after the assault, Sri Lankan Kfir jet bombers, Puccara war
	planes and MI-24 fighter helicopters began indiscriminately
	pounding surrounding Tamil villages. The deafening sound of
	bomb-fire has been heard non-stop since it began yesterday and is
	continuing even now, causing mayhem among terrified residents. A
	Puccara bomber that over flew Visvamadu at midnight fired two
	rockets into the thickly populated parts killing 3 civilians and
	badly injuring 14 others. A Kfir jet fighter bombed the coastal
	fishing village of Chundikulam at 11am, on the 9th killing 3
	civilians and injuring 4 others.
	
	The Sri Lankan military has become well-known for avenging
	military losses by taking the lives of Tamil civilians, and
	retaliatory operations of this kind are routine, totally
	discrediting the claim that Sri Lankan forces are aiming to
	"liberate" Tamils.

TAMILS WOKEN AND MARCHED TO OPEN FIELDS
	Sri Lankan forces have raided hundreds of Tamil homes in
	Batticaloa district in a massive round-up operation. This latest
	co-ordinated siege began in the early hours of Monday morning
	targeting the Tamil villages of Vantharumulai, Kaluvankerni,
	Mavadivempu, Siththandy, Morakoddanchenai and Santhiveli and
	other nearby areas. By 3 am the Sri Lankan military began waking
	panic-stricken Tamil residents and herding them in columns to
	open fields. Shaken victims later reported they were paraded
	before masked men who ceremoniously hand-picked many innocent
	Tamils for arrest. Students and teachers were notable among those
	arbitrarily arrested.
	
	Although Sri Lanka maintains to the outside world that it is a
	"liberating" force in Tamil areas the reality there - hidden by a
	government block on independent news reporting - is that Tamils
	have to regularly tolerate traumatic incidents of this kind at
	the hands of Sinhala armed forces. Meanwhile, the round-ups in
	Batticaloa are still continuing and further details are awaited.

SOLDIERS ATTACK PLAYING CHILDREN
	Rampaging 'homeguards' - armed by the Sri Lankan military - in
	the border region of Katpiddy have assaulted a group of Tamil
	children playing in an open field. The Sinhala homeguards entered
	the Tamil village of Sinnakudiyiruppu and immediately began
	harassing and later beating the children. A pregnant Tamil woman
	who reportedly tried to intervene was also "beaten senseless" by
	the armed homeguards, eye-witnesses said.

"SCORCHED EARTH" POLICY DISABLES CULTIVATION
	Paddy cultivation in the Eastern district of Batticaloa is almost
	at a standstill now that Sri Lankan military forces are
	systematically bombing Tamil areas without regard for the area's
	ecology. Batticaloa, which used to be described as the island's
	granary, is today increasingly dependent on imports due to the
	destruction of its fields. Sri Lankan military forces regularly
	shell paddy fields making workers too afraid to venture there,
	and military vehicles generally run over paddy lands during Sri
	Lanka's incursions into ancient Tamil territory. Further, each
	time Sri Lankan soldiers march into Tamil villages, civilian life
	is totally disrupted and many people become uprooted making
	organised cultivation of paddy fields impossible. A few weeks ago
	it was reported that Sri Lankan forces had been ordered to scorch
	rice fields as a part of its military strategy to break the will
	of Tamil people who are determinedly resisting Sinhala occupation
	of their homeland.

TAMIL NADU FISHERMAN WASHED ASHORE
	The body of a Tamil man riddled with gunshots has floated ashore
	at Pesalai (Mannar). The man is believed to be a fisherman from
	Tamil Nadu (India). The incident is the latest in a spate of
	attacks on Tamil fishermen by the Sri Lankan navy. An Indian
	police spokesman earlier reported that four fishermen from Tamil
	Nadu had been fired upon by the Sri Lankan navy and that though
	three of them escaped one was shot into the sea. The Tamil people
	of Mannar gave the dead man a dignified burial.

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)