2ND LEAD

Muttur east attacks on civilian targets totally unjustifiable, Elilan tells Henricsson

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 April 2006, 09:04 GMT]
Trincomalee Political Head of the Tigers, S. Elilan, who met Major General Ulf Henricsson, the Head of Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), Thursday in Sampoor in Trincomalee, said the three pronged attack launched by the Sri Lankan forces on civilian targets in Muttur east following the bomb blast that injured Lt Gen Sarath Fonseka is not justifiable. 18 civilians were killed, more than thirty wounded and many thousands displaced by indiscriminate airstrike and artillery fire by the Sri Lankan forces on Muttur east.



Major General Ulf Henricsson was shown the families of the victims of the air strike in Muttur East villages.

Mr.Elilan, talking to media after his meeting with the SLMM head, said Colombo was giving a totally unjustifiable version to media with a claim that it's armed forces launched the air strike and artillery fire on civilian targets in Muttur east villages to thwart an attack against Sri Lankan navy boats.

Elilan denied the reports of attack against Sri Lankan naval boats.

Mr.Elilan described the air strike and artillery fire on the Tamil civilian population in Muttur east as a blatant violations of the ceasefire agreement by the Sri Lankan Government.

Elilan told the press that during the Tuesday, Wednesday attacks by the GoSL, ten villages of Muttur east were targetted. 12 aerial bombs and nearly 600 artillery shells including those from multi-barrel launchers fell on the villages.

"All targets hit were civilian. One LTTE base was slightly damaged. However, not a single LTTE cadre was injured in the attacks," Elilan told the press.

"We asked Mr.Henricsson why the SLMM did not take any steps to stop the shelling during the more than 16 hours of continuous attack by the Sri Lanka Security forces. The SLMM head told us he was in constant contact with Sri Lanka Military commanders to cease the fire. The Trincomalee head of the SLMM was also in touch with the local Sri Lanka military commanders who informed him that orders have to come from Colombo, and that the attacks were in response to the explosion in Colombo that injured Lt. Gen Fonseka," Elilan said.