SLMM frees arrested youths

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 June 2002, 11:35 GMT]
Four Tamil youths arrested by the Special Task Force (STF) and subsequently released without charge have protested their abductions to the Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission (SLMM) office in Ampara, press reports said. The youths were released after the intervention of an SLMM official.

The youths detained in Karativu, Samanthurai by the STF were named as P. Raguthevan (20), R. Govindaraj (21), S. Yogarajah (21) and S. Ravishankar (18). Without being able to provide cause for arrest, the STF finally handed them over to the Samanthurai police.

The youths were released after intervention by Mr. Rasiah Shanmuganathan, the LTTE’s representative with the SLMM in the Amparai district who came to the police station on being notified of the STF’s arrests.

In the meantime, the STF has ordered the closure, at 10 pm daily, of the Paddiruppu bridge to the public, causing considerable hardship for the large numbers of people who rely on the bridge. In particular, the road closure makes emergency medical treatment impossible for the people of Paduvankarai, the LTTE-held region who rely on the hospitals in Batticaloa.

Meanwhile, residents in Kiran allege that the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troops visited some homes in the area on Friday and demanded that they sign letters denying that the Army had asked them to make coffins as war would resume in a month.

The Thinakathir, published locally in Batticaloa, had reported that on Wednesday the troops had threatened the residents of Kiran to make two coffins for each home as when the war would began anew, troops would exact retribution for people’s support for the Liberation Tigers’ political activities.