More internecine clashes in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 February 1998, 23:59 GMT]
Three cadres People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) were abducted from their office in Velanai and a member of the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO), A . G Fernando, had a knife stuck in his throat last night are the latest in the bizarre series of clashes between the Tamil parties in the Jaffna peninsula.

The PLOTE cadres were kidnapped by an armed group of the Eelam Peoples' Democratic Party (EPDP). Meanwhile the TELO cadre who was admitted to the Jaffna general hospital, identified his assailant as a member of the EPDP.

Mr. Fernando was walking from the TELO office on Hospital Road in Jaffna town to his home at Chinnakkadai when he was set upon and knifed.

Following this, Sri Lanka Army's (SLA) Brigadier Shantha Kottegoda, General Officer Commanding 51 Division and Brigadier Susantha Mendis, Jaffna Commander, summoned the DPLF, EPDP, TELO and EPRLF to 51 Division Headquareters at Gnanam Hotel around 11:30 a.m. and castigated them for the violent behaviour of their party cadres.

Jegan, EPDP's Chief Organiser of the Jaffna District, under interrogation admitted that his party had in their custody the three members of the DPLF abducted from Velanai.

Sources in Jaffna said Jegan had expected the PLOTE to admit it had in its custody three EPDP cadres whom it had abducted earlier. But the PLOTE refused to do so.

The officials of the SLA warned that any person seen carrying arms in the Jaffna Peninsula would be shot, except in the islands of Delft and Pungudutheevu.

Delft is under the control of the EPDP while Pungudutheevu is partly dominated by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

The incident at Velanai follows clashes between the EPDP and PLOTE in Jaffna town yesterday, in which EPDP cadres were injured and four of their motorcycles damaged. This incident was preceded by another clash between the two parties in Delft where a PLOTE member was abducted.

The PLOTE and EPRLF have issued statements on the incidents this afternoon in Jaffna.