2ND LEAD (Added details)

Paramilitary abducts IDP boys as more flee Vaharai

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 January 2007, 15:44 GMT]
Two boys, displaced from Vaharai to Kannankiramam village in Valaichenai, were abducted by armed paramilitary men at 2:30 p.m. Saturday. On Thursday, 3 youths belonging to IDP families were abducted by the paramilitary. Residents fear increased abductions as 4700 persons from Vaharai region crossed over the entry point at Kajuwatte, 5 km north of Mankerni, Friday and Saturday, and around 1200 civilians reached Singapura area through Kattumurivu. Abductions of underage youth, taking place almost on a daily basis, are no longer complained to Police following threats from paramilitary.



Several civilians were still on their way towards entry/exit point at Kajuwatte and towards Singapura, according to the IDP families who have reached Maruthanagar in Valaichenai.

Many of the IDPs had walked a long distance along the shore towards Mankerni. The elderly persons, children and women were taken in tractors.

42 bus loads of civilian IDPs were transported from Kajuwatte to Mankerni.

There was no complain of harassment by the military or police.

However, paramilitary personnel had confiscated a few motorbikes and cellphones from the IDPs.

Two IDP camps were also being set up at Savukady and Iyankerni in Eravur Police division in addition to the camps in Valaichenai.

Valaichenai has been a refuge to IDP families.

Refugees from Vadamunai, Uthuchenai and Punanai areas had been living in a temporary reufgee camp at Pethalai till their camp was damaged in fire in 1997 when they were provided temporary huts in Pandimadu where 3 young men were abducted Thursday. One of them was a married man, abducted near Valaichenai ASP (Police) office. The other two were teenagers.

Paramilitary personnel who visit the IDP camps during day-time, return during nights to abduct the youths, residents said.

Details of the abducted youth were not available as the IDP families struggling in a new environment were threatened not to lodge complaints with the Police or with the Human Rights Commission by the paramilitary.

Sivanandan Sivaneswaran, a 15-year-old boy from Ilankaithurai in Vaharai region was one of the two young boys who were abducted Saturday at Kannankiramam.

One of the boys abducted earlier was identified as Kodeeswaran Matheeswaran, 18. He was abducted on January 05.



Tamil villagers from Batticaloa Polonnaruwa border villages displaced to Valaichenai in 1990 and in 1992 when SLA troops, enraged by a landmine attack that claimed the life of Major General Denzil Kobbekaduwa and several SLA officers on August 8 1992 in Jaffna, went on a rampage the next day on the Batticaloa Polonnaruwa border village Mylanthanai. The SLA troopers ordered the residents to come out of their houses before attacking them with knives and clubs, killing 39 civilians, including 9 children and 6 elderly women, and wounding 24.

18 SLA soldiers, indicted in the massacre case, were acquitted by the Sri Lankan High Court as Sinhalese speaking Jury brought a unanimous verdict of not guilty when the court heard the case 10 years after the massacre, in 2002.



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