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| Sunday, 10 July 2005 |
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Tiger security: Govt decides this week by Ranga Jayasuriya The Government will this week respond to the LTTE request for a security guarantee for the movement of Tiger cadres between the Wanni and the East under the Security Forces escort. A Peace Secretariat official said the issue had been taken up by the Defence Ministry and the Peace Secretariat. "The Ministry of Defence had given their views on working out a procedure. And now they have been processed," the official said. The official could not say whether the Government's response will be announced tomorrow when the Defence Secretary Major Gen Ashoka Jayawardene meets the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission Chief Hagrup Haukland on a routine weekly meeting. "The Government will convey its response to the LTTE next week," he said. The LTTE is demanding a security guarantee and "a clear set of procedures" on the movement of the LTTE cadres between the Tiger held areas in the Wanni and the East through the Government controlled areas. Tiger political chief S.P.Thamilselvan made the demand at a meeting with the truce monitors on June 30, following a bus transporting 40 LTTE cadres and escorted by the security forces narrowly escaped a landmine explosion near Welikanda on June 26. One LTTE female cadre suffered minor injuries in the incident. Thamilselvan gave a 14 day ultimatum to the Government to respond, failing which he warned the LTTE would begin its armed escort for the cadres travelling through the Government controlled areas. The Tigers, earlier demanded security forces personnel to travel in the same convoy with the Tiger cadres. No soldiers, however, travelled in the bus when it came under the landmine explosion. SLMM acting chief Hagrup Haukland last week discussed the LTTE demand with Peace Secretariat Chief Dr Jayantha Danapala and Defence Secretary Major Gen. Ashoka Jayawardene. Haukland said he had not yet received a response on the issue from the Government. "The issue will be discussed this Monday (when he meets the Defence Secretary), he said, adding: "I am hopeful we can find a solution through dialogue". |
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