The military say the operation followed reports that the Tigers were preparing for a major attack on the peninsula on 5 July, Black Tiger Day, annually observed since the first suicide attack was carried out by LTTE’s Captain Miller during Sri Lankan Army’s Operation Liberation in July 1987.
LTTE attacks in Jaffna continue. Three soldiers were killed and seven others were injured in a Tiger landmine attack on 1 July at Nunavil, two miles west of Chavakacheri. Following the incident, soldiers attacked civilians on the streets wounding seven people. Three soldiers have been arrested.
Press reports say Pandatharippu resident R Rajendran, 37, suffered severe torture at Mahiyapiddy Army camp. It is alleged that his head was covered with a plastic bag dipped in petrol and he was hit with a hammer on the forehead. The Sri Lankan Human Rights Commission (HRC) complained to Maj. Gen. NR Marambe, who reprimanded officers involved in the torture. The HRC received 69 complaints of human rights abuses in June, including five against Tamil groups working with the Army.
The Jaffna magistrate ordered the military to produce in court, five people arrested following the killing of an Army officer on 25 May. Five refugees who returned from the Vanni were arrested at the Gurunagar refugee camp on 10 June. The Army detained seven suspects in Valvettithurai on 22 June in connection with the killing of a policeman.
A delegation of Jaffna’s Women Development Centre, led by Saroja Sivachandran told visiting North-East Province Governor, Maj. Gen. Asoka Jayawardena in June that women fear to travel in the peninsula because of harassment at Army checkpoints and highlighted the difficulties in locating women arrested by the military. The delegation also said that some 20,000 women whose parents or husbands have died in the conflict continue to suffer without employment or proper support. Maj. Gen. Jayawardena says that the 22,000 vacancies in Jaffna, including 6,000 for teachers will be filled in stages.
The Jaffna Citizens Committee for Peace met Maj. Gen. Marambe in early June and made representations regarding the effect of restrictions on movement and problems in obtaining permits for people who wish to travel to Colombo on urgent business. The Citizens Committee urged the Army to remove the ban on cultivation of 24,000 acres of land in the Jaffna peninsula.