LTTE PRESS RELEASE 04.09.1997 Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit ----------------------------------------------------------------- Following Press Release is sent for distribution through TamilNet , by the LTTE international secretariat, 211 Katherine Road, London E6 1BU, United Kingdom, Tel/fax: 0181-470 8593. ----------------------------------------------------------------- LTTE Headquarters, Tamil Eelam. 04. September 1997 LTTE PRESS RELEASE NEWS FROM TAMIL EELAM TAMIL EELAM TO REMEMBER LT. COL. THILEEPAN The 10th death anniversary celebrations of Lt. Col. Thileepan will begin on the 15th of this month. The functions connected therewith are to be held all over unoccupied parts of Tamil Eelam. The celebrations will extend over a period of 12 days. Tamil Eelam's national flag will be ceremonially hoisted in selected sites at 9:55 on the first day and on every subsequent day. Following the salute to the flag, a variety of speakers will address the crowds and extol the virtues of the dedicated hero Thileepan and his role in the Tamil nation's freedom journey. All public institutions, educational centres, LTTE camps and offices and all commercial places are expected to participate in the celebrations. WEEK-LONG CULTURAL FESTIVAL IN VANNI The Vanni "Kalai Thai Manram" is holding a week-long music and drama festival with many open-air plays depicting the lives and struggles of the Tamil people, particularly in the face of the present threat from Sinhalese armed forces. The plays reflect contemporary life and dramatise the living reality of the Tamil nation in the throes of a brutal army invasion in which immeasurable atrocities are being enacted against them. The most popular plays are "We Rise Again", "Light After Darkness" and "The Seeds of Freedom", which will be performed in the open-air and which are expected, as usual, to attract huge audiences. MILITARY STRATEGISTS DENY WATER TO TAMIL RESIDENTS Sinhalese STF forces have been instructed to stop the Tamil residents of Kakachivettai and Pallaiyadivettai (in Paduvankarai, Batticaloa) from accessing water. The Tamils of these villages normally get their water from the nearby Navakiri lake, but after this lake came under a Sinhala colonisation scheme and fell into the hands of the Sinhalese military, Tamils have been stopped from getting water from this lake. The denial of water to Tamil civilians is part of the government's strategy of engendering war-weariness in the Tamil population. OCCUPYING FORCES KEEP CHANGING POSITIONS The frequent change-around of army checkpoints in Jaffna is causing tremendous inconvenience to the Tamil population, especially in the face of the 6pm to 6am curfew, which shows no signs of being lifted. The people are suffering in silence, fearful of making any complaints to the hostile and increasingly vicious Sinhalese military authorities. The Jaffna Vembady junction checkpoints have been recently shifted to the telecom junction and also to the front of the Vembady girls' school, which has caused much anxiety among the female students here, many of whom have already been subjected to sexual abuse from the Sinhala troops . The girls are being stopped and checked by male soldiers. There is little, however, that they or their teachers can do to prevent these molestations. Meanwhile, the Stanley Road petroleum checkpoint which closed a month ago has been reopened. Political Committee, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (English translation of the LTTE statement released by LTTE International Secretariat, 211 Katherine Road, London E6 1BU, United Kingdom. Tel:0181- 503 4294) ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytas-09.11.97-20:32:13-13744