In brief
Journalists killed
Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontieres expressed concern over Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation journalist Anthony Mariyanayagam’s killing by LTTE gunmen in a church in Vavuniya on 31 December. Journalist Anura Priyantha and cameraman P Indika were killed in the Colombo Town Hall suicide attack on 18 December.
Disappeared in east
Amnesty International has expressed fear that V Vijayarajah, 22, of Valaichenai disappeared after arrest by Sri Lankan soldiers on 3 January. The Army told parents that he would be released the following day, but later denied the arrest.
The war dead
The LTTE say that 14,355 cadre, including 160 Black Tigers died in the last 17 years. Between 1994 and 1999, 9,558 Tigers were killed. According to an Army publication, since October 1981, 10,688 soldiers died. Between 1994 and June 1999, 6,261 were killed. This excludes those listed as missing in action and the other security services.
North-east votes
Ranil Wickremasinghe gained 369,000 votes while Chandrika Kumaratunge received 330,000 in the election in the north-east. In Jaffna only 19% of the 612,000 registered voters turned out and 31% of the 205,500 voters in the Vanni cast their votes. In Batticaloa and Trincomalee districts the turn-out was 64% and 63% respectively.
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