LTTE Headquarters,
                                                Tamil Eelam.
                                                12. March 1997


PRESS RELEASE
NEWS FROM TAMIL EELAM

MASSIVE ROUND-UP WITH MASKED 'INFORMERS' - THENMARADCHY
	Details are emerging of a massive round-up and search operation
	taking place in Varani, Thenmaradchy (in the Jaffna peninsula).
	Hundreds of army personnel are said to have moved in on the area
	with 'masked informers' on hand to select residents for arrest
	and punishment. A contingent of government-backed Tamil militia -
	derided locally as the "gang of five" - is also participating in
	the round-up. Terror has gripped locals who are somewhat familiar
	with the procedure. Most residents - which includes small
	children - have already been led to an open field. According to
	ritual, the masked 'informers' will later walk along the parade
	of people. A simple nod of the head is enough to incriminate
	someone and lead to their arrest. Masked informers were used by
	the Sri Lankan army during the JVP uprising in the south of the
	country. Even then, these  'informers' had to accuse a regular
	quota of people to avoid being suspected themselves of letting
	people get away.
	
	Meanwhile, the ritual rounding-up and interrogation of Tamils in
	this archaic fashion ought to prompt foreign diplomats and
	observers to re-consider their patience with Sri Lanka's military
	strategy. Indeed, it is disturbing the extent to which the
	international community seems to have adjusted to this state of
	affairs as 'normal' and tolerable.

	Further details of this round-up operation are awaited.

JAFFNA PRIEST HANGS HIMSELF IN TEMPLE
	The Hindu priest of a Jaffna temple has committed suicide on the
	premises after failing to trace his brother who was arrested last
	week by the Sri Lankan army. His brother - also a priest of the
	Meesalai Vellaimavady Ganesh Temple - was arrested on frivolous
	charges as part of the Sinhala-Buddhist army's routine harassment
	of the Hindu clergy. But when the priest went to all the army
	camps to search for his brother his enquiries and pleas were
	typically shrugged off by military officials. Convinced that his
	brother had by now been murdered by soldiers the priest hanged
	himself inside the temple. Sri Lankan brigadier Janaka Perera who
	was formerly in command of Jaffna once promised the Hindu clergy
	that they would not face harassment from Sinhala armed forces.
	But since the occupation of Jaffna Hindu temples have often faced
	the brunt of soldiers' venom. The incident is a reminder that Sri
	Lankan army rule over the Tamil nation is driving Tamil people to
	extremities. The suicide of a well-loved and respected priest has
	not only caused consternation among the Jaffna population it is
	also symbolic of the trauma the Tamil nation is facing at the
	hands of a foreign army.

MEN RETURNING HOME ARE STABBED BY SOLDIERS
	Knife-wielding Sri Lankan soldiers have attacked three Tamil men
	who went to retrieve possessions from their former homes in
	Kilinochchi, which was taken over by Sri Lankan forces last year.
	Soldiers decapitated one man in the assault while stabbing the
	other two repeatedly in the neck and head. The soldiers fled soon
	after the attack which occurred in  Uruthirapuram (Kilinochchi
	district). The men's bodies were found by worried relatives who
	went to investigate. The two who survived are currently fighting
	for their lives in Akkarayan hospital.

BUSES SNATCHED BY SOLDIERS - TRAVELLERS DUMPED ON ROADSIDE
	Tamil passengers on long-distance bus journeys out from
	Batticaloa are being routinely thrown off vehicles at the
	Welikanda junction manned by Sri Lankan soldiers. The buses are
	often taken over by the military who leave passengers stranded on
	the roadside, miles from anywhere. It can be days before the
	buses return.

ANNAI POOPATHY REMEMBERED
	Annai Poopathy, the woman who died in a death-fast while
	protesting the presence of Indian troops on Tamil Eelam soil, is
	being remembered. She is known affectionately in Tamil Eelam as
	"the mother of our freedom struggle". On the 19th March the
	annual award in her name will be given to the child who performs
	best in a general knowledge test.
 

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)