School shifted due to Navy bombarding

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 April 2000, 13:11 GMT]
The Government Tamil Mixed School (GTMS) in Ilankanthai has been shifted to a safer location in the interior for fear of further attacks by Sri Lanka Naval gunboats Department of Education officials in Mutur said today. The classes for the children were conducted under trees following the SLN attack yesterday as there are no buildings in the interior for running the school they said.

The school building was damaged on two occasions in past when the village was bombarded by SLN gunboats the department official said. It was damaged yesterday too when the village was hit by SLN shelling. Several huts and a school were damaged in the shelling yesterday.

Ilakanthai is a coastal village immediately south of the Trincomalee bay, close to Foul Point. The coastal region and its hinterland south of Trincomalee is controlled by the Liberation Tigers.

The Sri Lanka Navy says that the Sea Tigers operate from locations to the immediate south of the Trincomalee harbour and that its patrol craft fire on suspected Sea Tiger positions on the coast.

But civilians in villages in this region such as Soodaikudah and Ilakanthai say that the SLN gun boats generally fire indiscriminately on the coast from a safe distance at sea.