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PRESS RELEASE
LTTE Headquarters LTTE BLAMES SRI LANKAN MILITARY FOR MASSACRE OF CIVILIANS IN MADU The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) wish to deny categorically the accusation made by the Sri Lankan military that our organisation was responsible for the massacre of Tamil refugees in the Madu church. It was the Sri Lankan army, which launched a sudden artillery attack on the surroundings of the Madu church causing the mass slaughter of innocent civilians. 34 civilians were killed and 60 injured when a barrage of artillery shells fired by the Sri Lankan army fell among the refugee population around 9.30pm last night while they were sleeping in the church premises. At the sametime a commando unit of the Sri Lankan army stormed into the defenceless church premises last night holding thousands of refugees as a human shield. In view of the possible dangers of civilian casualties, the LTTE fighters have avoided confrontation with the army in the holy sanctuary but made an appeal to the church authorities and the international NGO's (UNHCR, ICRC) to prevail upon the Sinhala military not to use the Tamil civilian population as a cover and shield for military purposes. We wish to condemn this method as an inhuman act of cowardice. Madu church and its surrounding area were liberated by the LTTE fighters last Thursday as the occupying troops fled the area without resistance. In agreement with the church authorities, the LTTE kept the area demilitarised as a respect to the sacredness of the sanctuary. Utilising the defencelessness of the pilgrim town, the Sri Lankan military has occupied the church premises and firing artillery indiscriminately in the area. (Released by the International Secretariat of LTTE, 211 Katherine Rd, London E6 1BU, United Kingdom. Tel : 44 181 503 4294) |