LTTE Headquarters,
                                                Tamil Eelam.
                                                10. May 1997
PRESS RELEASE
NEWS FROM TAMIL EELAM

"POLICE MADE ME DRINK MY OWN BLOOD" - TORTURE VICTIM
	A Tamil man presently in a Colombo jail is filing for wrongful
	arrest after undergoing excessive torture at various Sinhala
	police stations. He was arrested in November while staying at a
	Vavuniya hotel. Local police beat him on the head with iron rods
	then kicked him in the face as he squirmed on the ground. He was
	then ordered to drink the blood that poured from his nose and
	mouth. A month later Rajendran Mahendran - who is 33 - was
	transferred to Borella police station (Colombo) where the torture
	continued. Officers squeezed his testicles in an iron device and
	denied him treatment even as pus leaked from his ears. He was
	later taken to Colombo magistrates court where he was remanded
	for an indefinite period. Mahendran is a father of three from
	Karainagar. He says not even the scant legal formalities relating
	to arrest and detention under the country's draconian emergency
	regulations was observed. Sri Lanka claims that Tamils are
	treated as equals in law.

INTENSE SHELLING OF VANNI REPORTED
	The Sri Lankan military has intensified its shelling of the Tamil
	population of Vanni. The multi-pronged attack is being launched
	from three Sri Lankan army bases - at Vavuniya, Kilinochchi and
	Elephant Pass. Sri Lanka's targets are residential Tamil villages
	which are densely-populated. The result, as usual, has been chaos
	- men, women and children have once more been uprooted as the
	long-range artillery has them running from pillar to post. Many
	buildings have already been ruined. Sri Lanka carries out this
	routine obliteration of Tamil residential villages - and the
	deliberate policy of refugee generation - under the pretext that
	it is liberating Tamil areas.

HEALTH MINISTRY FAILS TO CATER FOR TAMIL AREAS
	For 20 years now not a single anti-malaria officer has been
	appointed by Sri Lanka to work in the Tamil Vanni region. Most of
	the former officers have retired and have not been replaced.
	While Sri Lanka is obliged to use public money - mostly foreign
	aid - to develop the entire island, the aid is routinely used to
	develop Sinhala areas at the expense of Tamil areas. The
	non-appointment of anti-malaria offices to Tamil areas is just
	one manifestation of this general policy. Malaria, meanwhile, has
	become a major killer of Tamils in the Vanni, caused by Sri
	Lanka's embargo on medicine to the Tamil Vanni.

AFTERMATH OF PULIYANKULAM HOSPITAL BOMBING
	After Sunday's savage airforce assault on Puliyankulam hospital
	the building is in ruins. One entire hospital wing is gutted and
	all medical stocks have been destroyed. It appears the Sri Lankan
	military has been ordered to directly target hospitals in an
	effort to disrupt medical relief to the Tamil population and
	thereby facilitate Sri Lanka's military invasion of the
	northeast. Heavy rains, meanwhile, have resumed and rain water is
	reported to be flooding much of the hospital's premises.

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)