SLA threatens Jaffna journalist

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 April 1999, 19:30 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) interrogated and threatened Veluppillai Thavachelvam, a regional correspondent living in the village of Maamunai on the south-eastern coast of Jaffna for more than five hours yesterday, accusing him of failing to provide information about the Liberation Tigers who had allegedly come to the area in recent days.

The SLA had surrounded Thavachelvam's house around 8 a.m. in the morning yesterday. Soldiers had searched his house and questioned him until 1 p.m. in the afternoon said his colleagues in Jaffna town today.

One of the soldiers had attempted to assault the journalist with the stock of his rifle and threatened him with dire consequences if he did not reveal the identity of some Tigers who had allegedly been to Maamunai recently.

The soldiers had accused him of providing succour to the LTTE. Later, an SLA officer, upon finding that Thavachelvam is a journalist, had stopped the soldiers who were trying to assault him.

Thavachelvam's colleagues in Jaffna said that some mischievous elements in the area had misinformed the SLA that the Liberation Tigers had visited him recently. The village of Maamunai is in that part of Jaffna's south-eastern coast which is not under control army's control.