LTTE Headquarters,
                                                Tamil Eelam.
                                                16. March 1997


PRESS RELEASE
NEWS FROM TAMIL EELAM

HIRED TAMIL MILITANTS CONDUCT DEADLY ROUND-UPS
	Armed members of the pro-government Tamil party PLOTE are
	regularly engaging with Sri Lankan armed forces in violent
	round-ups of Tamils in the northeast. Recently, two Tamil
	civilians were arrested in Eravur by PLOTE cadres and taken to a
	secret location where they have since 'disappeared'.
	
	Although 'parliamentary' Tamil groups - like PLOTE, EPDP, TELO
	and EPRLF - profess to be 'democratic' forces a truth not widely
	known internationally is that the armed militants attached to
	these parties are under the pay of the Sri Lankan government and
	engaged in activities which are staunchly anti-democratic.
	
	Sri Lanka has made good use of these chiefly cash-motivated
	Tamils to present to the international community the image of
	Tamils being deeply divided politically. However, in the
	traditional Tamil northeast these groups are looked upon with
	tremendous disgust by the Tamil nation not only for their open
	siding with government forces but their active participation in
	criminal rackets in the occupied Tamil territories.
	
	It is worth pointing out that all the present Tamil parties in
	parliament were elected by a small minority of Tamils living in
	areas under military occupation and faced with heavy
	intimidation. Therefore these armed Tamil parties can in no
	measure be said to represent the Tamil nation.

TAMIL EELAM NATION HONOURS ITS WAR HEROES
	The three LTTE members who died in the China Bay military
	operation have been remembered with affection by the Tamil
	people. A mile-long procession marched through the Vanni streets
	from Sivanakar to Puthukudiyiruppu. Every house along the route
	had in place a traditional oil lamp as people flocked on both
	sides of the road to cast flowers onto the moving float upon
	which was hoisted the portraits of Major Sittampalam, Captain
	Nivethan and Captain Vijayaruban. The three had together
	penetrated what was thought to be the impregnable defences of the
	China Bay airforce base, successfully destroying an aircraft and
	much of the compound.
	
	At the end of the procession, a public tribute took place at
	Puthukudiyiruppu at which LTTE political representatives Mr.
	Ilayavan and Mr Vasanthan were present. Mr Para, head of judicial
	administration for the region, addressed the gathering.
	
	Meanwhile, respects were paid by Tamil people in the east to
	those LTTE fighters who died in the recent overrunning of
	Vavunathivu army camp (Batticaloa). Friday saw all schools, shops
	and offices in Waharai, Karadiyanaru, Vavunathivu and
	Kokkadichenai closed and certain  boat services halted. Special
	poojas and prayers were also held at Hindu temples all over the
	Tamil regions.

GOVERNMENT 'DEMARCATION' PLANS SLAMMED
	A prominent Tamil organisation - the Tamil Mahasangam - is
	protesting against Sri Lanka's plan to make the eastern Tamil
	village of Alaiadivempu an annexe of the now mainly-Sinhala
	Amparai district. The re-demarcation plan follows a long-standing
	government tradition of land-grabbing from Tamil people only to
	gradually evict them and replace them with Sinhalese settlers.
	Indeed, the district of Amparai was itself a wholly Tamil area
	before successive Sinhala colonisation schemes diluted the Tamil
	population there and made them a minority. The pattern is now
	well-established, with the routine conversion of Tamil areas into
	Sinhala ones. Pavatkulam (in Vanni), for instance, has become
	"Padaviya" (a Sinhala name) while Manal-Aru (Mullaitivu) has
	become "Weli-Oya".
	
	The motive is obvious. For the past 50 years Sri Lankan
	governments have been steadily trying to erode Tamil national
	integrity by obscuring the reality of a geographically distinct
	Tamil homeland. The re-demarcation of boundaries proposed by
	Minister G.L. Peiris is likewise geared towards further eroding
	this national integrity.
	
	In any event, developments like the assimilation of Tamil towns
	into Sinhala districts and the re-naming of Tamil places with
	Sinhala words ought to alert observers that contrary to the
	government's facade of forging a multi-ethnic Sri Lankan state
	what is actually taking place is the attempted 'Sinhalisation' of
	the entire island.

SOLDIERS GO BERSERK IN BATTICALOA
	Evening classes at Valaichchenai Hindu college had to break early
	after a Sinhala army unit starting shooting at people through the
	windows and doors. Students and teachers fled by the back door as
	window panes were smashed to pieces by the gunfire. There is
	extensive damage to the building. The reason for the attack
	remains a mystery.

FISHERMAN DISAPPEARS DURING NAVAL ATTACK
	Sri Lankan navy vessels in Mullaitivu waters Friday night fired
	on a Tamil fisherman. Arumugam Yogendran (29), a father of three,
	is presumed dead since his body was not recovered. Another 3
	fishermen scrambled to shore luckily escaping injury. The same
	navy unit later raked cannon-fire at sleeping Mullaitivu coastal
	villages before turning back.

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)