Naval personnel assault Tamil civilians

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 August 2002, 15:56 GMT]
Seven civilians were assaulted severely by Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) personnel at Naranthanai, an islet in the Jaffna district Friday afternoon, according to a complaint made by the Kayts Palmyra and Coconut Development Society to the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission ( SLMM ) in the peninsula. Six SLN personnel entered a toddy tavern in the area and assaulted the civilians, around 2.30 p.m. Friday, the complaint further states.

Later the SLN group had thrown a civilian into a near by well and left the area. He was rescued by residents of the area, complaint further states.

The victims were identified as; Lawrence Ravindran (25), Stalin (34), Alankaram John Mary (44) Velayutham Rasaretnam (60), Ambihavathy (32), George (28) and Soosaipillai (54).

Meanwhile a twelve-year-old boy was seriously wounded when an unidentified object exploded around noon, Saturday at Punkankulam area in Ariyalai, Jaffna district. The explosion took place when the boy had set fire to the garbage, collected in the area. The victim, Osmanraj Prakashraj has been admitted to the Jaffna teaching hospital, medical sources said.

The incident happened in an area that has been declared by the Sri Lanka Army as free of mines. Also two weeks ago a youth died in this area in a mine explosion.