LTTE, SLA meet in Vavunathivu

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 October 2003, 11:31 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and military officers of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) met at the Vavunathivu district secretariat building at 10am Monday morning for two hours, security sources in Batticaloa said. Batticalo district head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), Antii Juntunen presided the meeting.

Batticaloa-Amparai district LTTE Special commander T.Ramesh, LTTE political head E.Kausalyan, Batticaloa-Amparai LTTE head of military wing Robert, Head of Administration Prabha, Commander Ram, Deputy Head of Political wing Kirusan and Varathan participated on behalf of the LTTE.

Commander for the Eastern Providnce General Nanda Mallawarachchi, Commander for the 23rd division Brigadier Sumith Balasuriya, Valaichenai Commander Col. Pathirana participated for the SLA, sources said.

The meeting focussed on exploring ways to ensure adherence to the Cease Fire Agreement and procedures to promptly resolve differences that arise between the SLA and the LTTE in the district.

General Mallawarachchi said, "Most of the problems arise in the lower ranks in both sides, and these are due to misunderstanding of the agreements reached at higher levels of command. Higher ranking officers should get involved to resolve the disputes as early as possible. That is how we can strengthen the peace process."

Commander Ramesh said, "In several recent incidents, including the incident when several SLA soldiers attempted to enter into Vahaneri region, we were able to quickly visit the site of the dispute and were able to resolve the issues by talking to both sides. We have to continue to adopt similar procedures to resolve disputes."