SLA bans LTTE women cadres from using waist-belts

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 February 2003, 14:01 GMT]
Ms Kayalvizhi, the leader of the women wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Jaffna district, lodged a complaint with the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) in Jaffna, Sunday, against the ban imposed by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) on LTTE women cadres from using waist belts when they enter the army controlled areas in Jaffna district, sources said.

The LTTE officials are to meet the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission in Jaffna Monday regarding this matter, sources said.

The SLA, Sunday, instructed women cadres of the LTTE cadres not to use waist belts when they entered army-controlled areas in Velanai, Manipay and Muhamalai areas in the Jaffna district. At Muhamalai manning the checkpoints army personnel Sunday sent back several LTTE women cadres for using waist belts, sources said.

Earlier when such instruction was issued by the SLA, the SLMM intervened and thereafter the SLA allowed LTTE women cadres to use ordinary waist belts other than military ones, sources said.

However the SLA has now issued fresh instruction to LTTE women cadres not to use any type of waist belts, sources said.