News in Brief:

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 April 1999, 12:08 GMT]
New SLA camp in Jaffna; Police shelling kills three; LTTE announces five casualties and eighteen detained following search operation.

New SLA camp in Jaffna

A new Sri Lankan army camp is being established at Vadamarachchi east in the Jaffna peninsula.

Five boats carrying Sri Lankan troops landed on the Nagarkovil sea coast on Monday. The troops then started establishing a new camp at Mamunai village, said residents in the area.

Meanwhile the SLA cordon and search operation in the Manalkadu area of Vadamarachchi east continued into its second day on Tuesday.

The movement of all vehicles came to a stanstill again at the Vallipuram SLA check point, sources said.

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Retaliatory police shelling common - MP

The member of Parliament for the Batticaloa district, Mr. Joseph Pararajasingham, has urged the President, Chandrika Kumaratunge, to look into the Eravur Police shelling on Sunday that left 3 civilians killed and fourteen others wounded.

In a message faxed to the president yesterday, Mr. Pararajasingham said that it had become normal security forces practise to retaliate against LTTE attacks by firing shells into civilian areas.

The MP said that the authorities had not taken any measures to prevent such attacks despite the fact that the matter had been brought to the President's attention several times.

He appealed to the President to bring the matter to the attention of the Inspector General Of Police and take necessary steps to ensure the security of civilians.

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LTTE announces five casualties

The Liberation Tigers announced in the Vanni that a woman fighter, Sutha (Thambirajah Mangaleswarai of Batticaloa) died yesterday in a confrontation with the Sri Lanka Army at Paranthan.

They said that four other fighters died on Sunday, April 25 in an ambush by the SLA at Periyamadhu, northwest of Madhu.

They are: Kanthan (Ramaiah Sivakumar of Badulla) Veera (Rajmohan) Suthaharan of Batticaloa) Sevvel (Navaratnam Vijeyarai)

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Eighteen detained following search operation

The Sri Lanka Army conducted search operations in the villages of Irnaiiluupaikkulam and Kalmadhu, captured during Operation Rana Gosa, and detained 18 people.

Sources said their families have not been informed where they are being detained.

The following were detained during the search operation:

Thambirajah Thevarajah, 29 of Omanthai

Ramaiah Yogeswaran, 21

Kovinthasamy Sivakumar, 26

Rasavan Mahenthiran,28

Ramakrishnan Atputharajh, 23

Kandaiah Linganathan, 34

Sinnathamby Jeevananthan, 21, Kovilkulam

Kanthasamy Jeyanesan,21,

Nagarajah Pushparajah,27

Iyampillai Murukaiah,34,

Panchadcharam Tharshini,20

Mathavan Pushpamalar,28

Ponnuthurai Sivapushpavalli,21

Saravanamuththu Marakathavalli,22

Selvanayakan Sivanayakasuntharam, 24 of Kalmadhu

Tharamasuntharam Maheswaran,19

Mrs. Visvakumari Thavarajah, 49

Thavarajah Sathyaseekan,21