Another poster campaign in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 September 1998, 11:32 GMT]
Posters offering a reward for capturing the leader of the Liberation Tigers, Veluppillai Prabhaharan, dead or alive appeared in many parts of the Batticaloa town yesterday morning. They were issued in the name of an unknown organisation styling itself 'Peaceful Democratic Revolutionary Front'.

The poster says "Wanted" above a photo of the LTTE leader.

It says there is a reward for capturing him dead or alive but it does not say how much is on offer.

The poster said that he is wanted for the assassinations of Alfred Duraippah, A. Amirthalingam, TELO leader Sri Sabaratnam, Jaffna Mayor Yogeswary (sic) and Vasanthan of TELO.

Those who designed the poster had got the name of the slain Jaffna Mayor Sarojini Yogeswaran wrong, leading people to suspect that it was the work of someone not too familiar with the Tamil political scene.

Small crowds that gathered to read the posters this morning uniformly expressed the view that the army was undoubtedly responsible for it.

A member of a Tamil ex-militant group operating with the SLA in Batticaloa, said that a group from the army intelligence camp in the town had pasted the posters after dark on Friday night.

The Sri Lanka Army has conducted several poster campaigns in the Batticaloa area recently. The posters are designed to undermine public support for the LTTE.