In the eye of the beholder?

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 April 1998, 23:59 GMT]
The Sinhala and Tamil new year is a time of good will between people. But the beauty contest held at the Maruthanaarmadam Ramanathan College as part of new year festivities yesterday where both SLA women soldiers stationed in the area and Tamil girls took part did not quite strike the note of cordiality that might have been expected on such occasions.

The local girls appeared at the contest dressed in sarees while the belles from the SLA came in cloth and jacket, the traditional dress of the Sinhala women.

No little resentment was created when the five prizes for the fairest of them all went to the five cloth and jacket clad Sinhala girls and nothing came the way of the aspiring Jaffna beauties.

"This is a huge dent in the support of Jaffna girls for the hearts and minds operation of the SLA in the peninsula!" commented a wag who was present at the contest to the TamilNet correspondent.

Meanwhile the SLA announced that other festivities in the coming days to mark the New Year.

The SLA informed the Jaffna public from vehicles fitted with a public address systems that part of the fun would be a marathon from Kodikamam to Jaffna and urged the public to participate in the event.