SLA said attacking Kiran villagers

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 November 2003, 04:08 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army personnel at the Kumburumoolai SLA camp in the Batticaloa district are attacking Tamil civilians following the recent death in nearby Kiran village of a soldier attached to the camp, who was part of a gang of soldiers engaged in several robberies in the village, sources said.

The gang of three soldiers from the Kumburumoolai camp had been involved in several robberies in the village. Last Saturday night, when the gang was in the process of robbing a home in the village, the robbers (soldiers) were attacked and they escaped with serious injuries, sources said.

On Sunday morning, one of the soldiers was found dead in the surrounding jungle, and the people of the village informed the SLA camp about finding the dead body of a man. But the SLA initially denied that the dead man was not a soldier from the camp, and the public then buried the body.

The Sri Lanka Police later exhumed the body and handed it over to the Valaichenai hospital. The body was later identified as that of Dissanayake Muthiyansalage Vimalaratne, 27, a soldier attached to the Kumburumoolai SLA camp. Following an inquest, the body was handed over to the soldier’s parents.

Following this incident, the SLA personnel at the camp visit the nearby Kiran village at night and attack the villagers, and more than 100 families from the village are moving out of their homes at night for safer places as a result of the SLA’s attacks. The families continue to fear for their safety, sources said.