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SLMM responds to appeal from Puththur residence-"we have no power to remove the offending military"

This incident on Friday flared up as angry villagers surrounded the camp protesting and the military opened fire on the protesting crowd.

The letter of appeal from the residence to SLMM states,

“We appeal to you to remove the military camp right in the middle of a very thickly populated area. If it is not removed we are afraid that we the people will have to take that action ourselves.

Military is occupying the performance hall, temple, pre-school and public centre for no apparent reason. We expected the military to vacate these places after the ceasefire agreement. The continued occupation of these public places is a ceasefire violation.

We experience many harassment, indignity, and inconvenience due to the presence of military right in the middle of our village. Many villagers have displaced recently out of fear due to the threats posed by the military.

Village people ran to the aid of the women who screamed for help when a man attempted to rape her in her own home on Friday. The man escaped into the military camp. The military instead of handling the incident appropriately, opened fire on the protesters and attacked them. Several villagers were injured and a 20 year old man, Tharmarasa Nirojan, was killed by the shooting”.

The Jaffna SLMM official told the villagers who handed the letter of appeal to them that he has no power to ask the military to remove the camp. (Note that the presence of military in public places is a ceasefire violation and the SLMM is there to monitor ceasefire implementation). The SLMM official further said that he has informed their head office of the incident.

01 November 2005

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