COLOMBO: At least 90 militants of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil EELAM were believed to have been killed in clashes with rival groups in eastern Sri Lanka over the past two days, Chief Minister of the northeastern provincial council, Varadaraja Perumal said.
He said the incident took place in the pottuvil area of Amparai district.
Perumal said over phone from Trincomalee that LTTE men were killed in clashes with rival groups particularly with members of TNA.
A LTTE spokesman in Colombo however said that he had not received any information so far about any clash.
Perumal claimed that several LTTE militants had begun to desert the organization during the past few days. He also condemned Colombo’s action in rounding up a large number of Tamil youth in the capital. Perumal described the action as the beginning of Sri Lankan government’s war against the Tamils and urged the opposition leaders to strongly condemn the government action.
Meanwhile the EPRLF said in Madras that hundreds of Tamil youths were arrested in Colombo during this week and many had been killed.
“Nothing is known about the rest,” an EPRLF press release here said and appealed to the Tamil Nadu government and the center to take immediate steps to put an end to the “anarchy” created by the Sri Lankan armed forces and the LTTE.
Article extracted from this publication >> February 23, 1990
