SLA hands over 30 bodies

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 December 2000, 11:56 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army on Monday handed over the bodies of thirty Liberation Tigers who were killed during the recent fighting in the Kaithady sector, east of Jaffna town, to the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The bodies were taken by boats from Gurunakar and to Kalmunai in the Pooneryn region, Harasha Gunawardena, the spokesman for the ICRC said.

Hospital sources in Jaffna said the troops handed over 23 bodies on Friday and 7 bodies on Saturday.

Meanwhile Sri Lanka Army soldiers cordoned off the villages of Potpathy and Kudaththanai in the Vadamaradchi East sector of the Jaffna peninsula and conducted a house-to-house search operation Sunday morning said sources.

The villagers were headed to a public place and their identity cards were checked by the soldiers, the sources said.