Identity of dead youth disputed

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 November 1998, 23:35 GMT]
The SLA shot dead a youth, who it claimed was a member of the Liberation Tigers, at Vaakarai, 58 kilometers north of Batticaloa, last night. The army handed over the body to the Tiger office at Paalchenai, 8 kilometers further north of Vaakarai, this morning through the ICRC.

The Liberation Tigers, however, declared that the youth was not a member of their organisation and returned the body. Following this, Batticaloa district judge, Mr.J. Viswanathan, ordered a post mortem of the dead youth.

The army claimed that the it had shot at the young boy and another who was with him as they had attempted to run away when challenged by troops near the Vaakarai SLA camp last night.

However, the Batticaloa district Judicial Medical Officer (JMO) K.Chandrapaalan said in his report on the youth's death that examination of his body clearly revealed that the boy had not been killed while running away but had been shot in the head at point blank range.