3RD LEAD (CORRECTION, UPDATE)

3 civilians killed, 9 wounded in SLA shelling on IDP settlement

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 October 2007, 10:07 GMT]
Three civilians, two of them belonging to a single family and an 8-months pregnant mother, were killed and nine wounded when Sri Lanka Army (SLA) fired artillery shells hit a shelter hut in the settlement of Internally Displaced People (IDPs) at Periyamadu in Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) controlled Mannaar Thursday around 11:00 a.m. The wounded mother was struggling to give sudden birth to her child killed in her womb and the IDPs who were helping the young mother, became victims of the second wave of artillery shelling. Nine IDPs, including the 3-year-old son of the pregnant mother, a couple, their 13-year-old daughter and two other children, were wounded in the artillery attack.

The victims were Internally displaced families who had moved from Adampan due to artillery shelling by the SLA.

More than 530 civilians from 42 families displaced from Va'n'naangku'lam in Adampan were living in the temporary huts at Periyamadu.

The wounded victims were rushed to Pa'l'lamadu hospital, 18 km away from the IDP settlement, and later transferred to other hospitals.

Victims killed were identified as Parimalam Selvanathan, 20, the pregnant mother, Somasundaram Jeyabalasingam, 61, and his 9-year-old girl Kowsalya Jeyabalasingham.

Meanwhile, the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO) in a press release issued Thursday said the IDP facility was run by the TRO.

The wounded victims were:

1. Loganathan Karuppiah, 45, (husband)
2. Sivapakiyavthy Loganathan, 45, (wife)
3. Loganathan Umathevy, 13, (daughter)
4. Nirojan Selvanathan, 03,
5. Aalvaar Subramaniyam, 58,
6. Thiraviyam Jeyabalasingham, 44,
7. Robecca Vasanthan, 05,
8. Sutharsan Francis, 14,
9. Mohanraj Suppiah, 29