BREAKING NEWS

Maavilaru sluice gates opened by LTTE, civil representatives

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 August 2006, 12:11 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) together with civilian representatives in Maavilaru Tuesday evening around 5:00 p.m. opened the sluice gates, said S. Elilan, Trincomalee District Political Head of the Tigers. On Sunday, Head of Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) Major General Ulf Henricsson and Trincomalee Head of SLMM came under artillery fire when they went to Maavilaru with Mr. S. Elilan, to open the sluice gates on humanitarian grounds according to the Norwegian International Development Minister Erik Solheim's request.

Trincomalee District Political Head of the Tigers, S. Elilan, said that "the LTTE, as agreed with the Norwegian facilitators, opened the sluice gate as a good-will gesture, amid heavy artillery firing by the Sri Lankan forces that were unable to reach the Maavilaru site."

The Liberation Tigers last week launched a three-days-long counter-offensive to exert military presssure on Sri Lankan armed forces.

The Sri Lanka Army offensive, setting aside SLMM facilitated peaceful resolution, had opted to open the sluice gates to capture Maavilaru "within 24-hours," 10 days ago.