LTTE Headquarters,
                                                Tamil Eelam.
                                                01. June 1997

PRESS RELEASE
NEWS FROM TAMIL EELAM                                           
                                                
GIRL DIES ON SPOT, OTHERS CRITICAL, AS CIVILIAN CASUALTIES MOUNT
	Sri Lanka's army - stalled just north of Omanthai - is continuing
	to hammer distant Tamil towns with long-range artillery.
	Mankulam, Puliyankulam, Palamoddai and Kanaharayankulam are being
	devastated by the bombardments. All are thickly-populated Tamil
	towns. The army knows that from such a distance civilians will
	most certainly be hit. Again, the Geneva Conventions regarding
	the protection of civilians are being violated, while the news
	blackout keeps the truth hidden. The Sinhala army is meanwhile
	frustrated by the strong resistance meeting its forward march and
	this is motivating them to pound Tamil towns even more fiercely.
	Civilian casualties are reported, with the death of a 22-year old
	girl - Kanthappu Yasothathevi  - now confirmed. She died on the
	spot when a shell split her body open yesterday evening. Many of
	her neighbours are critically injured. Civilians from these four
	locations have now been displaced, joining hundreds of thousands
	already made refugees in the Vanni district. In Kanakarayankulam,
	lots of already-displaced people huddled in schools have been
	compelled to flee again after the schools received direct hits.
	Sri Lanka's strategy - of deliberately displacing thousands of
	Tamils and using long-range artillery to pound heavily-populated
	towns -  remains unchallenged. The inaction of those in Colombo
	aware of the situation is an incentive to the Sri Lankan
	government to continue its no-holes-barred attack on Tamil
	regions.
	
DEMONSTRATORS DEMAND FOOD AND MEDICINE - MALLAVI
	Many thousands of men, women and hungry children marched to the
	ICRC's Mallavi office to hand over an urgent memorandum calling
	for a halt to the government's food and medicine siege of Vanni.
	The memorandum says the embargo is driven by racism against
	Tamils and intended to starve people into submission. Even
	"Kanchi" - water from boiled rice, added with salt - is not
	available in welfare centres anymore, the statement says. Whether
	president Kumaratunga will heed the desperate pleas of the
	starving Tamil population she is claiming to "liberate" remains
	to be seen. The twelve food lorries promised by the government -
	even if they materialise - will be ridiculously inadequate. A
	minimum of 50 food lorries a day is required to cater to the
	basic survival needs of Tamils in Vanni.
	
SRI LANKA'S OFFENSIVE SWELLS LTTE RANKS
	The sheer callousness of Sri Lanka's current war-effort makes
	this Sinhala government easily the worst ever perpetrator of
	suffering on Tamils and poses by far the most serious threat to
	Tamils' survival as a people. People here in Vanni realise - as
	never before - that racism is what is driving Sinhala armed
	forces to do what they are doing to the Tamil homeland and its
	inhabitants. In Mankulam, nine students joined LTTE ranks
	directly after the Sri Lankan army shelled the area yesterday.
	Their induction comments reflect sentiments expressed by
	virtually all new LTTE recruits - the Sinhala army is bent on
	wiping out the Tamil people, so there is no recourse left but to
	fight them back.
	
LOCALS DRIVEN OUT - JAFFNA
	The last remaining Tamil residents of Muhavil (Thenmaradchy
	district, Jaffna) have been driven out by the occupying Sinhala
	army to make way for exclusive military zones, which are
	regularly expanded. Kovilavayal, Yakadchi, Masar and Tharmakerni
	have also been declared exclusive army territories. Jaffna is
	part of the ancient homeland of indigenous Tamil people.
	
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)