SLA deserters threaten Up-Country Tamils

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 March 2008, 08:47 GMT]
A group of more than 15 armed Sinhalese persons, said to be instigated by the arrival of a dead body of a Sri Lanka Army soldier from Ma'nalaa'ru battlefront in the North, entered the 'line' houses of Up-Country Tamils at Kirimetiya watte (estate) in Yatinuwara division of Kandy district in the Central Province and heaped threats of 'collective punishment' a few days ago. Fear gripped the Tamil 'lines' following the episode as many SLA soldiers, recruited from the Yatinuwara area, are engaged in the Northern battlefront.

The dead body of an SLA soldier, Ratnaweera Nilantha Kumara, was brought to the Sinhala majority estate Kirimetiya on 23rd of February.

The mob that entered the 'lines' of Tamils in the Sinhala majority estate of Kirimitiya Watte, constituted largely of deserters of the SLA, according to Tamil civilians in the estate.