IDP visiting home in Thenmaradchi knifed

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 September 2001, 20:12 GMT]
Mr. Sinnathamby Kandaiah, 53, who went to see his home in Kodikamam in the Thenmaradchi division southeast of Jaffna town Saturday was admitted to the Manthikai hospital with knife wounds. Relatives who brought him to the hospital around 4.30 this afternoon said that he was found lying unconscious and that there were cuts on his body. The man, who regained consciousness later in the day, said he was knifed by Sri Lanka army soldiers in the area. Kandaiah's family was displaced by heavy fighting between the SLA and the LTTE last year.

"I saw a young woman in our neighbourhood when I went to check the condition of my house this afternoon. I told her she should not be wandering alone in the area as she could be harmed. But she went away without heeding me. And then some soldiers came looking for me, beat me up and knifed me," Kandaiah said.

Although Kodikamam is under the control of the Sri Lanka army, more than forty percent of the population has left, fearing more offensives by the LTTE and the military. Many civilians often return to their homesteads to check the condition of what they left behind.

Meanwhile, sources in Vadamaradchi east said that the SLA searched the mangroves west of Nagar Kovil from 7 a.m. to 12 noon today. The dense mangroves in the shallow lagoon between Nagar Kovil and Eluthumadduval is considered by the SLA as a dangerously porous sector between its forward defences against the Liberation Tigers in the Jaffna peninsula.