News in Brief:

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 March 1999, 11:54 GMT]
Vanni Citizen's Committee Sends memorandum to UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan; The Tamil National Movement urges Indian Central Government to lift ban on LTTE; Liberation Tigers report four casualties from the Vanni.

Citizen's Committee appeals to Kofi Annan

The Vanni Citizen's Committee has sent a memorandum to the United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, describing the difficulties faced by civilians living in the Vanni.

The memorandum was handed over to the ICRC office at Mallavi yesterday.

The Committee also appealed to the ICRC to gather details of damage caused to civilians during the recent military operation, 'Rana Gossa'.

According Sri Lankan Army, nearly 8000 civilians are currently living in the newly captured areas. The Army said that they are providing new identity cards to them.

Meanwhile civilians who had fled the area are currently staying at schools in Mallavi and Thunukkai.

Sources in the Vanni said that a three-month-old baby died due to cold weather.

The baby was among those fled during the recent offensive, the sources added.

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Conference urges lifting of LTTE ban

A one-day conference organised by The Tamil National Movement ('Thamilar Thesiya Iyakkam') in Madurai in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, on Sunday, adopted a resolution demanding that the Indian Government lift the ban on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in India.

The conference adopted among the other resolutions; the release of Tamil prisoners; the lifting of the ban on sending relief supplies and the promotion of opportunities for Tamils to study in India.

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Four LTTE casualties - VoT

A member of the Liberation Tigers, Singam (Gopalapillai Anandarajah of Ampara) died in a clash with the Sri Lankan Army at Mankulam on March 7, said the Voice of Tigers (VoT) radio.

The radio further said three Tigers died at Moonrumurippu on March 6, in an ambush by the SLA.

They are: Cpt. Vijayaraj, also known as Hariharan (Suppaiah Ravikumar of Mallavi), Cpt. Seelan (Subramaniuam Jeyanthan of Mannar) and Lt. Ahilan (Vijayaraj Nagarajah of Mallavi).