
Farm worker in Mulliavallai killed by SLA shelling
A farm worker working in the rice fields in Thannimurippu in Kumulamunai was killed by the deliberate shelling of the SLA and another farm worker was seriously injured at 4.30am today, 8 September 2008.
 Thirty three years old Balasingam Ananthavadivel from Alampil lost both his legs when the artillery shell hit him. After the shelling the fellow farm workers could not find him and they had to put out a search before locating his body under the haystack where he had bled to death. Another farm worker, Velayutham Ravichandran aged 22, was injured by the artillery shells and was admitted to the Mullaithivu hospital. Farm workers were in the last stages of harvesting today, when the SLA, stationed in their Manalaru camp just 4 kilometers from this farm, targeted the farm workers. Since there is a rich rice harvest this season in this field, the owners of the fields are willing to risk harvesting the rice. The farm workers are paid four times the usual wages to work in these fields because of the risk of SLA shelling. At the same time people also say that the SLA is forcing the farmers out so that they can collect the harvest, a view held by people based on past experiences of the behaviour of the SLA.
08 September 2008
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