Protests after troops injure 20

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 July 2002, 10:17 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army and Police assaulted and severely wounded more than twenty civilians in the village of Nanattan in Mannar Sunday night. More than six hundred villagers began a protest Monday morning demanding that the SLA camp in the area should be removed immediately. Shops were closed and the streets were deserted in protest against the assault.

Senior SLA officers and members of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission in Mannar have visited Nanattan Monday afternoon in an attempt to resolve the crisis.

Residents in Nanattan told the TamilNet that about fifteen soldiers from the Nanattan SLA camp went on a rampage assaulting villagers around 8.30 Sunday night. The matter was reported to the police in Murunkan. But the police party that came to the village later joined the soldiers in assaulting the civilians.

The soldiers, according to residents had come to the village claiming that they were ‘going settle a dispute.’