News in Brief:

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 May 1999, 11:54 GMT]
Families move for airforce expansion; Army Captain accused of selling explosives; EPDP leader calls for NEPC elections, Mylanthanai massacre hearing postponed and LTTE shells SLA camp.

Families move for airforce expansion

The Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) informed residents of Tiruperunthurai, a village adjacent to the airport, to move 300 metres from the airport to allow expansion of the SLAF base.

Eighty six families will have to find somewhere else to live.

In 1984, 12,000 acres of land was accuired by the SLAF for the expansion of the base and 385 families had to move from the area.

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Army captain accused of selling explosives

An army captain was arrested in Tricomalee yesterday on information that he was allegedly supplying explosives to Tamil and Muslim traders in the district, said the State-run Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation.

The captain is a retired army officer and is alleged to have supplied explosives to traders while he was re-employed in the army on a contract basis.

As there was no provision to conduct an inquiry against the retired captain under army ordinance, he was handed over to the police for further investigation and action, the SLBC news bulletin said.

Meanwhile the Sri Lankan Police said yesterday that they arrested two Muslim youths at Kattankudy after they found a youth with a time bomb in a bus at the Mannampiddy checkpoint, at around 11.00 a.m. yesterday.

The Mannampiddy checkpoint is about 100 km. north of Batticaloa on the Colombo-Batticaloa road.

Three months ago, a youth from Kattankudy was arrested with explosives on a bus to Trincomalee.

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EPDP leader calls for NEPC elections

Douglas Devananda, the leader of the EPDP said yesterday that he will ask the Government to hold Provincial Council Elections in the North-eastern Province.

He said the PC system was introduced ten years ago in an attempt to find a solution to the north-east conflict. However, it has not functioned in these areas and this is a setback, he added.

It will be possible to hold elections there after the southern Provincial Counil Elections, he said.

Mr. Devananda, said that the council would solve the north - east problem to an extent.

Mylanthanai massacre hearing postponed

The Colombo High Court Judge, Mr.Chandra Ekanayake, postponed the hearing in the Mylanthanai murder case until June 6 after the defence moved that they should be provided with a Sinhala translation of the report regarding the identification parade held earlier and recorded in the Tamil language.

Twenty one Sri Lankan Army personnel have been charged with the murder of 35 Tamil civilians from the village of Mylanthanai in Batticaloa in 1992.

The seventh and eighth accused are dead the court was told.

The massacre took place soon after a landmine explosion in Jaffna that killed Lt. Colonel Hector Kobbekadauwa and other high ranking military officials.

LTTE shells SLA camp

The Liberation Tigers fired shells towards the Naakar Kovil Sri Lanka Army camp in Vadamaradhi East at around 4.30 p.m yesterday evening, said sources.

The Tigers fired five shells all of which landed close to the camp, the sources added.

The SLA said it suffered no casualties in the incident.