SLA soldier surrenders to LTTE in Muhamalai

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 December 2003, 16:33 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Army soldier has surrendered to the LTTE at their checkpoint at Muhamalai in the North Thursday, LTTE peace secretariat sources said, adding that the soldier has been handed over to the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) at the Peace Secretariat in Kilinochchi.

According to the LTTE, the soldier, Ketenwila Liyanage Sarathkumara of Ratnapura, gave a statement in which he said he had joined the SLA in 2001 and had been attached to the Monkey Bridge camp in Trincomalee.

He managed to escape from this camp and work as a security officer in a private establishment in Pettah, Colombo, where he was arrested on September 20, 2003, and taken back to the Monkey Bridge camp. A few days later, he was brought to Muhamalai to guard the the SLA’s Forward Defense Line.

The soldier also told the LTTE that he was frustrated and did not want to continue in the military, and therefore surrendered at the LTTE's passenger checkpoint in Muhamalai.