Army, Police search TELO office

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 August 2001, 18:32 GMT]
The offices of the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO) in Vavuniya was searched by the Sri Lanka army and Police Monday, ahead of the public meeting by the Alliance of Eleven Tamil parties Wednesday in the border town. Soldiers and Policemen dug the floor of the office in several places, a local TELO official said.

Police sources in Vavuniya claimed they had searched TELO office premises on information that illegal weapons caches were buried there. They said the search, however, had yielded nothing.

"This is a desperate act by the government to intimidate us from speaking up against the injustices they government is perpetrating against the Tamil people. This is not the first instance. We are being systematically harassed‰, said Selvam Adaikalanathan MP, the leader of the TELO.

On Saturday, a Tamil paramilitary group working with the Sri Lankan army in Vavuniya fired on the TELO office.

The Sri Lankan government accuses the Alliance of Eleven Tamil Parties (AETP) of colluding with the Liberation Tigers. A spokesman for the AETP dismissed the government's allegations saying "we are only speaking up against the injustices and war crimes committed against the Tamil people and we are taking up the legitimate political aspirations of the Tamils. If the government says that this is equal to representing the interests of the LTTE then so be it".