The military allowed only a small fraction of the medicines earmarked for the first quarter of 2000 into the Vanni in late May. According to reports, 65% of the 345,000 population in Mullaitivu and Kilinochchi districts has suffered from malaria and many people have contracted the disease several times. NGOs say drugs to treat malaria are acutely short.
In Vavuniya District, 26 people arrested by the police Counter Subversive Unit (CSU) are in custody. Police arrested Kilinochchi refugees S Valli and S Annaletchumy. The Human Rights Commission says that the police have not disclosed where Ms Valli is held. T Vigneswaran, who came to Sithamparapuram refugee camp from Puttalam has disappeared. Six others, including three from the Goodshed and Nelukulam refugee camps, are missing.
An armed gang shot dead three members of a family, including S Surendran, at Veerapuram in Cheddikulam. Reports say Mr Surendran, a former police informant, was assisting the Army. Security forces say that 120kg explosives were found in a house at Nelukulam, three miles west of Vavuniya town. Following the discovery, a businessman and a woman were arrested on 15 May and taken to Colombo for interrogation. Two members of Tamil group PLOTE were killed in a Tiger landmine attack in Vavuniya town on 25 May.
In another landmine attack two days later in Nelukulam, a police officer was killed and five others were wounded. A landmine killed eight policemen in a truck and wounded 21 others at Pambaimadu, nine miles west of Vavuniya on Mannar road. Three people were taken into custody after the attack.