SLA soldiers assault Tamil civilian

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 September 2002, 17:57 GMT]
A group of Sri Lanka Army soldiers Saturday afternoon severely assaulted a Tamil youth who was returning from Koddady in the high security zone in Point Pedro town after seeing his resettled relatives, said a complaint submitted to the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission in Jaffna district. Twenty five year old S.Ravindran alias Kannan has been warded in the Valvettithurai government hospital with serious head injures, medical sources said.

Koddady, a suburb is situated within the Point Pedro high security zone. About forty displaced families have resettled in Koddady with the permission of SLA. SLA has allowed outsiders to visit resettled families daily upto 12.30 pm.

On seeing the youth Kannan leaving Koddady after the stipulated hours, a group of army soldiers had assaulted him severely. The youth was taken immediately to the Valvettithurai hospital by neighbors with severe bleeding from injuries to his head.

On receipt of the complaint of the assault by the SLA soldiers, a team of SLMM monitors rushed to Point Pedro Saturday evening and started an investigation into the incident. Representation has also been made to the 52-4 Brigade of the SLA stationed in Point Pedro.

"SLA soldiers still harass the people of Point Pedro since September 2 incidents in which students and parents forcibly removed several sentries and checkpoints as a part of an agitation campaign demanding the opening of all roads in the high security zone for public use", residents said.