Farmer shot, refugee girl missing

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 August 2000, 12:57 GMT]
A farmer was killed in Vanthaarumoolai, 22 kilometers north of Batticaloa, around noon Sunday when he was hit by gun fire from a Sri Lanka army camp nearby. Meanwhile, a young girl has been reported missing since August 17 in Valvettithurai in Jaffna.

The parents of the missing girl, Kandasamy Manju, 18, sought the assistance of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Jaffna today to find their daughter. Manju and her parents were displaced from the village of Vannaankerni in Palai in the southern sector of Jaffna in April due to the war. They have since been living in vacant house in Valvettithurai. The parents said that Manju had gone to the beach after dark to answer a call of nature on 17 August as there is no toilet or latrine in the house where they live.

The Sri Lanka army allows people to beach side until 7.30 p.m. according to them. However, the army patrols the beach soon after it is dark they said. It is difficult to believe that Manju could have gone missing without the army's knowledge, argue her parents.

Meanwhile sources in Vanthaarumoolai said that soldiers were training today near the SLA camp at Kommathurai, a kilometer south of the area where the farmer, Kandasamy Thavarajah, 45, was killed. They said that Thavarajah may have been hit by a stray bullet from the training range.