LTTE Headquarters,
                                                Tamil Eelam.
                                                06. March 1997


PRESS RELEASE
NEWS FROM TAMIL EELAM

NEARLY HALF A MILLION TAMILS ON BRINK OF STARVATION
        Almost 400,000 Tamils in the island's east are on the
        brink of starvation following the Chandrika government's
        denial of food relief to 12 divisions of the Batticaloa
        district. The area's Tamil population in the past relied
        on food stamps issued by the government but these have been
        strategically withdrawn. The situation has been engineered
        by the Sri Lankan government in the knowledge that the LTTE
        cannot be defeated. The Chandrika government has realised
        that the only hope of occupying the northeast is by
        exterminating the Tamil population through a variety of
        covert measures.

        The genocide of the Tamil people of the northeast has now -
        unequivocally - become the main pillar of Sri Lanka's military
        strategy. In all areas of Sri Lankan military operations,
        Tamil rice fields are being scorched, food supplies cut and
        medicines withheld. It is a wait-and-see approach which will
        continue for as long as the international community remains
        blinded. The government's so-called devolution package, on which
        much international confidence is based, is a ruse intended to
        buy more time to continue its genocide.

        Evidence of this is mounting despite the government's ban
        on independent journalists to the northeast. Since January
        this year the ICRC  was stopped from carrying food to the
        residents of Vaharai (Batticaloa). The 17,000 people there
        have been without any food for over two months.

        The ICRC has failed to highlight the urgency of these people's
        plight to the international community. Ordinary men, women
        and children who are facing starvation now depend on this
        reality being exposed to the world.

EDIBALA - THE CONSEQUENCES
        The results of  Sri Lanka's Operation Edibala are
        recorded below:

        22 Tamil villages surrounding the Vavuniya-Mannar road
        have been deserted, with people leaving behind all their
        property and possessions

        12,500 acres of mature rice fields have been destroyed by
        Sri Lankan forces

        20,079 Tamils belonging to 5140 families are now refugees
        in Madhu Church and Palaimadhu (statistics obtained from Mannar
        district officials).

ARMY SHELLING KILLS MAN
        Shells fired from Elephant Pass army camp have landed on a
        family home in Nallur (Pooneryn) killing a man and badly
        injuring another. Tamil residents had returned to Pooneryn
        in 1996 after Sri Lanka removed its long-standing army camp
        from 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 / Fax: 0181-470 8593)