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

PHOTO EVIDENCE CONFIRMS LTTE SUCCESS
        Newspaper readers in Tamil Vanni have been seeing front-page
        pictures of the LTTE's major victory in Thursday's battles
        against Sri Lankan forces at Paranthan and Elephant Pass. The
        photographs which appeared in the Tamil Eelam daily "Eelanatham"
        show Sri Lanka's large weapon stocks being lined up and
        demolished in sequence by LTTE forces within the confines of the
        two army camps. The LTTE later retreated taking as much equipment
        as they could carry. The Sri Lankan defence ministry had Thursday
        morning claimed Sri Lankan forces had themselves destroyed
        military hardware to stop it falling into LTTE hands but the
        photos show categorically this was not so. 11 large artillery
        pieces are clearly depicted in the photos being blasted by LTTE
        demolition units. The two camps' entire fleet of armoured
        vehicles was also blown up and a 10km stretch of bunkers,
        pillboxes and sentry posts were destroyed. It is estimated that
        many millions of rupees worth of military equipment was wiped
        away in a short space of time.
        
        Over 200 Sri Lankan troops were killed in the fighting and the
        number continues to rise with many hundreds of soldiers seriously
        injured. The LTTE lost 140 of their own fighters, 78 of them from
        the highly-revered women's' corps.
        
        Strategically, the LTTE's twin-objective of dispersing troop
        concentrations and nullifying Sri Lanka's fire-power by setting
        fire to ammunition dumps and destroying its heavy guns, proved an
        overwhelming success. The armoury at these two camps had been
        used systematically by Sri Lanka to pound heavily-populated Tamil
        residential areas from a distance.
        
        The LTTE victories at Paranthan and Elephant Pass gave a strong
        message to the Sri Lankan government not to persist with its
        military solution to the Tamil national question.
	
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)