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| Sunday, 20 January 2002 |
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Goodwill visit to Vanni over missing servicemen by Frances Bulathsinghala Over 2,500 relatives of servicemen declared as missing in action left Anuradhapura at 9.00 am today, for the LTTE held areas in the Vanni for a meeting with LTTE political head, Thamilchelvam, to be held at 2.00 pm this afternoon at a Tiger chosen venue there. The group is scheduled to return to Colombo tomorrow, January 21. The visit which had the blessings of both the Government and the LTTE, according to the head of the association of relatives of servicemen missing in action, E. P. Nanayakkara, is a goodwill mission and a last resort to ascertain whether the number of military personnel declared as missing totalling over 2000 and assumed to be held by the LTTE, are actually in the Tiger camps. Nanayakkara, who said that the LTTE had responded 'positively' to the request by the association to meet the LTTE hierarchy, added that if the LTTE insisted at this meeting that there were no more than the 17 POWs formally declared as being held by it, the parents of the MIA soldiers would 'take their word for granted'. "We have suffered for years not knowing whether to accept the death certificate issued by the military and keep hopes that our children were actually held by the LTTE", Nanayakkara, whose pilot son went missing in the Mankulam region in 1997, said. The association which organised a similar venture last year in the guise of travelling to the Madhu Shrine, to get the government clearance from the then PA regime, said that this time round there would be 'more freedom' to talk 'more openly' with the LTTE as the association had got a 'clear go ahead' from the Ministry of Defence. The goodwill mission aimed at assisting the preliminary peace process where a dialogue between those in the LTTE held Vanni areas and civilians in the South was vital, said that 'even if there was a negative answer over their missing children', they would treat the visit as a precursor to the peace process. Nanayakkara said that at the meeting with the LTTE leaders, the issue of 'prisoner exchange' would be taken up. |
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