LTTE Headquarters,
                                                Tamil Eelam.
                                                08. March 1997


PRESS RELEASE
NEWS FROM TAMIL EELAM

VAVUNATHIVU CAMP OVERRUN - THE FULL DETAILS
        The Sri Lankan defence ministry yesterday issued false
        details of Thursday's LTTE attack on an army camp at
        Vavunativu.
        Here follow the real events:

        At 1.05 Thursday morning LTTE units launched a major offensive
        on the strategic Vavunathivu army camp in Batticaloa district.
        The camp housed 300 members of the Sri Lankan army and formed
        part of the military's forward defence lines protecting its
        main camp in Batticaloa town.  After six hours of heavy fighting
        Sri Lankan troops fled leaving LTTE to take over and demolish
        the camp.  LTTE captured much hi-tech equipment including a
        50-calibre gun. A rescue effort from Batticaloa's main army
        camp ended in disaster for Sri Lankan troops. A connecting
        bridge to the captured base was blasted as soldiers tried to
        make their way across and the remaining troops came under
        intense fire from LTTE units. Sri Lankan military casualties
        in this failed rescue bid are significant, though exact
        figures were not discernible.

        Consequently, Sri Lankan Puccara bombers, MI24's and Bell
        helicopter-gunships arrived on the scene to launch air-strikes
        against LTTE fighters at the captured camp. However, these
        fighter-planes were swiftly driven away by LTTE retaliatory
        fire and did not subsequently return.

        There followed persistent shelling of the LTTE-captured
        camp from two army positions - Batticaloa's nearby military
        airbase and Kommanthurai. LTTE fighters returned fire at the
        airbase and resultant troop casualties are presumed high.

        In the entire incident LTTE casualties amounted to 84,
        including the death of Lt Col. Mathana (commander of the
        Batticaloa-Amparai women's' brigade) and Lt. Col. Palendra
        (commander of the Vinodhan brigade).

TAMIL YOUTH GRAVITATE TO LTTE
        The influx of hundreds of Tamil youth to LTTE ranks is
        now a regular phenomenon contributing to the highest morale
        ever experienced by the Tamil independence movement. The land
        of Tamil Eelam being under occupation by the armed forces of
        a foreign Sinhala nation has compelled young Tamils to offer
        their lives to the cause of national liberty. The conviction
        among most new recruits is that the people of Tamil Eelam
        must at all costs be made safe from occupying forces who are
        daily raping, murdering and torturing their people. It is
        realised that future generations can only be made safe by
        the sacrifices of the present generation. It is a national
        burden that is being taken up by more and more Tamil youth.

TAMILS BECOME STRANGERS IN THEIR OWN LAND
        Sri Lankan troops occupying Jaffna have imposed Sinhala-only
        for the conduct of official business. Administration of the
        Tamil heartland is now carried out exclusively in the
        language of the occupying forces. Indigenous Tamils are
        experiencing tremendous difficulties communicating their
        many grievances. Even if they want to leave Jaffna they
        must make the application in Sinhalese.

        Eelam Tamils are an ancient people who have lived
        independently in the northeast territories of the island
        for centuries before European invasions. The imposition
        of Sinhala on the Tamil nation therefore amounts to an
        insult to the Tamil nation.

        It reflects the underlying momentum of the Sri Lankan
        government's war-strategy, the objective of which has
        always been to assimilate the Tamil nation into the Sinhala
        nation by force and thereby wipe out Tamil national identity.
        It is a momentum that has a long and violent history.
        Where forced assimilation has proven impossible to impose,
        the military has resorted to genocide, which is evident in
        the conduct of the war in the northeast today.

DISPLACED TAMILS STILL WITHOUT FOOD
        Batticaloa Tamils who recently fell victim to Sri Lankan
        military operations Rivijaya I and II have still not been
        supplied with food. These displaced people come from 288
        families and are, like thousands of other Tamils in
        Batticaloa, virtually starving. No humanitarian organisation
        present in Sri Lanka has yet attempted to relieve them.


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)