Two policemen and three civilians were wounded in a grenade attack on a police station in Trincomalee town on 6 June. The following day, shells were fired from LTTE controlled Iralkuli area into Muthur town. A policeman was wounded in a landmine attack at Thambalakamam on 30 June. Two days later, the Tigers assaulted a security force camp in Muthur, killing two soldiers. The LTTE captured another soldier. Three Tigers also died in the attack. Police Superintendent TM Kulatilleke says large amounts of explosives and weapons were found in Kovilgama and Peraru on early June, on information provided by four LTTE cadre in detention.
In June, the passenger ship City of Trinco carried 1,500 people to Jaffna from Trincomalee. Another 3,200 are waiting in Trincomalee to travel to the peninsula. Some 4,500 people are registered with the Jaffna government secretariat to travel by ship to Colombo and other southern areas.
In Batticaloa town, Manmunai regional council’s former chairman and Tamil group TELO member K Navaratnarasa, 35, was shot dead by LTTE’s Pistol Group on 7 June. Following the killing, some Tamil youths in the town were taken into custody. The Pistol Group also killed Army informant T Vijayan, 24, on 14 June in Valaichenai. Two other TELO members S Manivannan and V Pushparasa were shot dead in Kallady, south of Batticaloa town, on 28 June.
The Army arrested five youths, including Kulendran Sasi, 20, at Kokkuvil in early June and handed them over to the police Counter Subversive Unit (CSU). Three civilians who went into the jungle at Kattumurivu in Vaharai area on 10 June to collect honey, are missing. Relatives say the Army shot dead Kasipillai Kulandaivel, 48, and arrested the other two. The police took into custody 140 Tamils, who went from Batticaloa to work in 23 rice mills in Polonnaruwa District in late June. The Anuradhapura magistrate has ordered them to be detained.
Batticaloa residents complain that the North-East Provincial Council (NEPC) has not released funds to local government bodies for the year 2000 for development projects in LTTE-controlled areas, where over 80,000 people live. Each regional council is annually given Rs 1 million ($15,000). Funds have been allocated for Army-held areas and projects have already begun. Reports say that rural development programmes assisted by the World Bank and Asian Development Bank are being implemented in Tiger areas.