SLMM, LTTE find 'murdered Muslims' alive

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 March 2005, 07:42 GMT]
Tension in Oddamavadi, 34 kilometres north of Batticaloa, Thursday morning over reports that three men who had gone from the Muslim town to chop firewood in the jungles two days ago were found murdered was resolved after Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission and the Liberation Tigers who searched for their bodies found them staying in a village in the interior to ply their trade. Tension ran high in Oddamavadi, which shut down in protest against the murder of an auto rickshaw driver Wednesday, when Sri Lanka Police in Valaichenai told media Thursday morning that the three men were found murdered by the LTTE in the jungle near Omadiyamadhu, a village on the Batticaloa-Polannaruwa border.

Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission officials from Batticaloa went to the general area of Omadiyamadhu upon hearing the report. The jungles east of the village are controlled by the Liberation Tigers.

Hence the SLMM sought the LTTE’s assistance to search the area for the bodies of the Muslims. Later in the morning they found the three men in an interior village where the wood cutters had stayed back to get firewood in the surrounding forests, according to the head of the truce monitors in Batticaloa, Mr. Steen Jørgensen.

"It is clear from this incident that the Sri Lankan armed forces are trying to instigate the Muslims against us by spreading such malicious reports", said an LTTE official in Batticaloa.

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