LTTE Headquarters,
                                                Tamil Eelam.
                                                15. July 1997

PRESS RELEASE 
NEWS FROM TAMIL EELAM
                                           
'SHIPS SUPPLYING THE MILITARY IN JAFFNA WILL BE TARGETED' - LTTE
	"We cannot be party to the government ruse of shipping war
	materials to Jaffna under the pretext of supplying food and
	necessities for the people", the LTTE leadership has said in a
	policy statement in its official organ Viduthalai Puligal.
	
	The statement continues: while holding back the bare necessities
	to Tamils in Vanni, Sri Lanka is declaring that the people of
	Jaffna are being pampered, fed and clothed. But the real
	situation is far different. The government is mainly engaged in
	feeding, clothing and equipping its Sinhala army of occupation in
	the peninsula while the Tamil inhabitants of Jaffna do not enter
	into its calculations at all.
	
	Under these conditions the LTTE has no option but to regard these
	military-servicing Sri Lankan vessels as legitimate military
	targets. Since these supply-vessels constitute a threat to the
	Tamil people, they will not be permitted to carry out their
	sinister function.
	
	It is against the interests of the Tamil nation to allow Sri
	Lanka to strengthen its entirely-Sinhalese military forces so
	they can better harm and repress the Tamil inhabitants of Jaffna
	and conduct further callous military operations against the Tamil
	people in Vanni. The LTTE is not prepared to compromise the
	security of the Tamil people and will therefore do its utmost to
	prevent the traffic of items which do nothing other than
	strengthen Sri Lanka's military capability.
	
ANOTHER MASSIVE ANTI-GOVT DEMO IN VANNI
	Akkarayan (Kilinochchi) is seeing the latest eruption of mass
	anti-government demonstrations protesting against the
	Sinhala-dominated government's food-siege of Tamil Vanni.
	Protesters are condemning Chandrika's "war for peace" as a "war
	of annihilation" being carried out against their people by the
	government's Sinhala armed forces. Popular feeling is rising
	against what Tamils consider the most vicious Sinhala government
	yet spawned. In real terms, it has wreaked more damage to the
	ecology of Tamil areas, more destruction to Tamil people's homes
	and buildings, made more people homeless and is carrying out
	greater repression day to day than any other Sinhala government
	that has preceded it.
	
	The Confederation of People's Committees is co-ordinating today's
	huge demonstration. The march began in Akkarayan's Maha Vidyalam
	grounds and is proceeding towards the office of the Kilinochchi
	Secretariat. A memorandum will be handed to the main government
	representative there to be transmitted to the Colombo government.
	
SCHOOL KNOCKED DOWN IN BATTICALOA
	The Sri Lankan army has shelled a Tamil school in Batticaloa
	while classes were in progress. Students in Vipulanda school
	(Eravur) were lucky to escape being killed, though a number are
	seriously injured and remain in hospital. Nearby houses were also
	damaged in the incident which was carried out by Sinhala police
	based at the 5th Ward (Eravur) police station.
	
TRO TEMPORARILY RESCUES STARVING TAMILS
	Displaced Tamil people in Skanthapuram and Akkarayan who are
	suffering without food and water obtained some temporary relief
	after the Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO) made mighty
	efforts to co-ordinate a number of local welfare bodies to supply
	essentials to the starving people. After conducting a
	comprehensive survey of the situation, TRO managed to win the
	co-operation of several other welfare organisations in its
	desperate bid to feed the worst affected. The TRO hopes to extend
	this effort to other parts in the Vanni which are similarly
	affected by Sri Lanka's food-siege.
	
SIX BODIES WASHED ASHORE
	Tamil Eelam police are investigating the death of six persons
	washed ashore at Nachikudda. The decomposed bodies are thought to
	be those of Tamil civilians who tried to flee the island owing to
	the harsh conditions imposed on the Tamil people by the Sri
	Lankan government. Their boat is thought to have overturned in
	high winds. Local police have taken statements from residents and
	the dead persons have now been formally buried.
	
TAMIL DEATHS AND INJURIES RISE DRAMATICALLY IN JUNE - BATTICALOA
	The month of June saw a disturbing rise in the numbers of Tamil
	civilians killed and maimed by Sri Lanka's Sinhala army in
	Batticaloa district. On the 6th, shells fired by Sinhala soldiers
	from Harbour military camp fell on the roof of a Tamil primary
	school (Nasivanthivu) badly injuring P. Sureskumar (age 9), K.
	Solosana (age 7), T. Thines (age 12), T. Nirmal (age 10), T.
	Jeyarupan (age 12) and N. Thanuja (age 5). A school attendant -
	Thambimuthu Annapackiam (age 25) - was killed in the same
	incident and M. Saraswathy (22) and K. Sellathamy (60) are still
	in hospital, after their homes were smashed to pieces by the
	shells.
	
	On the same day, S. Sanmugarajah (37) was critically wounded when
	he was arbitrarily shot at by a Sinhala policeman attached to the
	Valaichchenai police station.
	
	Two days later (on June 9th) shells fired from the Sinhalese army
	camp at Valaichchenai at the Tamil-inhabited town of Kiran struck
	two civilians - K. Sellamuthu (50) and K. Kavithan (10). The
	ten-year old's legs were shattered and had to be surgically
	removed in hospital.
	
	On the same day, the Valaichchenai-based police fired shells into
	Tamil residential areas, mainly targeting the Vinayakapuram
	refugee camp. A 15-year old, K. Piramvathy, was killed and seven
	others were critically injured. They are: Sellamma (60),
	Thavamany (17), Arulamma (30), Mehala (17), Ponnampalam (9),
	Komathy (34) and Tharany (12).
	
	Gunfire from the office of the superintendent of police
	(Valaichchenai) took the life of one S. Thevy, an innocent woman
	who was in her kitchen cooking. The same day, a ten-year old boy,
	T. Kavikaran was killed by random gunfire by Sinhala soldiers.
	
	One thing discernible from these June statistics is that the army
	is paying special attention to targeting very young Tamil people
	in its attempted conquest of the Tamil homeland.
	
KILALI OUT OF BOUNDS TO TAMILS
	Another part of the Tamil homeland has been made out of bounds to
	Tamils by the occupying Sinhala army, who are chasing out the
	original Tamil residents of Kilali. Kilali is a bridge between
	the Jaffna peninsula and the Vanni region but according to the
	Sinhala armed forces Tamils can no longer settle there.

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)