From: rs6x+@andrew.cmu.edu (Ranjith Ravindiran Suresh)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.tamil
Subject: what if the NEWS is twisted?
Date: 16 Oct 92 07:56:41 GMT
Article-I.D.: andrew.AeriMtO00WBK82v18P
Organization: Senior, Civil Engineering, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA

Here's a possible orrurence in year 1996:  This is not a news piece. Fictional!


134 CIVILIANS MASSACRED IN RAIDS BY SL ARMY
----------------------------------------------------
Jaffna, Thursday, October 15, 1996.
 
Sri Lankan army men shot or hacked to death atleast 134
people in pre-dawn raids on four Tamil Eelam villages today 
in the worst rebel attack in two years. Most of the victims
were shot while several others were hacked with swords and 
machetes.
 
The Sinhala soldiers also killed 27 Tamil soldiers, bringing the total 
to 161. About 150 soldiers attacked the northern Vavuniya
district, a military spokesman, Colonel Murali Ramanayagam, said.
"They lost just 5 of their men", he said. 
 
Dozens of villagers are still missing.
"Villagers are searching the jungles in case there are any missing
persons," he told reporters in Jaffna, adding that many children
were among the dead. He said the death toll might rise.
 
The massacre victims were found in the villages of Polligandi,
Oorani and Nediakadu, a senior officer from the district said.
 
A fourth village, Udduppitti, also came under attack but no-one
was killed. Coloner Murali said 88 people were injured in the
district.
 
Three of the villages were occupied by minority Muslims, while
Uddupitti had a mixed population of Muslims and mainly Hindu
Tamils.
 
The attacks began at 4:45am as the occupants slept and continued
until first light. "Soldiers sorrounded the village while they were
still asleep. First they finished off the two gaurd points and then
systematically went from house to house shooting men, women and 
children," a Tamil leader in the area said.
Two Eelam helicopters and two fighter planes fired
on the soldiers, killing 15, as they retreated from the villages, Colonel
Murali said. The Special Ops commandos will comb the nearby forest with
shoot-to-kill oders.
 
The SL army fighting for more territory in north and east
of Lanka were responsible for the slaughter, he said. Eelam soldiers have
since taken control of the four villages.
 
The Sinhalase, mostly Budhist, have in the past attacked Tamil and 
Muslim villages to drive their occupants from the area.
 
In August 1990, they massacred 140 Tamils at Kokkaticholai village, in
eastern Batticola district. A week later they killed 122 Tamils at
Mullaithevu, in the Northeast. This was before partition of what used to
be Sri Lanka.
 
The Sinhala army has often accused the Tamil villagers of being spies 
along the border areas. Tamils comprised old Sri Lanka's second-largest
community after the Sinhalese.
 
Tamil leaders, especially Mr. XXXXX, of the Eelam Tamil
Congress, have repeatedly urged Tamil soldiers to provide more security
for their villages.
 
Some Tamil officials rushed to the area to try to pre-empt any reta-
liation against the nearest Sinhala village. Tamils have in past hit
back in kind against Sinhala attacks.
 
Tamil soldiers have also carried out reprisal killing of Sinhala
villagers. But political analysts said that it was unlikely there
would be any rebel retaliation this time because today's attacks were
aimed at civilians.
 
"If there is retaliation, it will come from the Tamils", one said.
 
A week ago, the Tamil high command announced changes in the military strategy
to try to make defensive operations along the border more effective. 
 
"It has always been [the Sinhala army's] strategy to attack innocent 
civilians in border areas when it can't attack the Tamil army," Colonel
Murali said. "We will look into see how the Lankan army foiled the
border defenses. There will be an inquiry."
 
But the analysts said the Tamil army should deploy more men to protect
villages.
 
Military commanders have said the Tamil army needs far more than its
60,000 soilders to protect villages while guarding against
the Sinhala army intrusions.
 
Atleast 30,000 people have died in the nine-year war between the
Tamils and the Sinhalase before partition. This year, the Tamil army has
lost 100 men, mostly in the east from Sinhala soldiers' sniper fire and
armed reconnaisance missions.
Xref: sparky soc.culture.tamil:2795 soc.culture.indian:33839