On 14 November an electricity transformer in Badulla town was damaged with bombs. Two more transformers were blasted in Bandarawela on 18 December. Although the police suspect the LTTE, Badulla MP TV Sennan says southern groups may be responsible.
The bomb attacks have given rise to fears of new harassment of Tamils in the Hill Country. The Joint Plantation Trade Union Committee (JPTUC) meeting in December in Kandy called for President Chandrika’s intervention to end arbitrary arrests. Reports say over 50% of Plantation Tamils have no national identity cards although most applied several years ago. Hill Country NGOs also joined a Colombo demonstration marking the International Human Rights Day on 10 December to highlight the difficulties faced by Plantation Tamils.
Police arrested six Tamils on suspicion of LTTE links in Galaha in late November and detained temple priest Sivashankara Sharma. Tamils in some areas of Pussellawe and Gampola complain that their homes are often searched by police in the nights. On 14 December, Matale police arrested S Natkulasingham and his son Michaelo who arrived from Trincomalee in search of employment.
National Union of Workers President T Aiyadurai says in an early December statement that Hill Country’s young men and women are unable to attend social functions fearing police arrest. Security forces demand proof of police registration and refuse to accept national identity cards or letters of identity from village headmen or estate superintendents.
In Colombo, security remains tight and police say 20 Black Tigers are in the city to destroy 17 strategic targets. The capital is divided into six security zones, each headed by an Army or police officer. Maj. Gen. Jaliya Nanmuni will be overall commander. Special Task Force (STF) commandos are now redeployed. The STF was removed from Colombo in August 1995 after the murder of over 30 Tamils in custody. The court case relating to the killings has been abandoned.
Twenty Hill Country youths who came to Colombo for the Human Rights Day demonstration were arrested by police. Fifteen Tamils in buses were arrested on Aluthmawatha road on 9 December. Three days later the Army surrounded Kotahena suburb in the night and detained a number of Tamils.
Parents of the disappeared, who met President Chandrika on 29 December pointed out that they returned to Jaffna from LTTE-controlled Vanni on government request and the disappearances occurred while government forces occupied the peninsula. The President assured the parents that she would appoint an independent body to investigate.