Sea Tiger convoy sails under SLMM aegis

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 August 2002, 20:25 GMT]
The first Sea Tiger convoy sailing from Mullaitivu under a working agreement between the Sri Lankan Navy and the Liberation Tigers brokered by international ceasefire monitors arrived in Vaakarai Sunday. Two patrol boats of the Sri Lanka Navy provided escort to LTTE boats.

The first batch of unarmed LTTE cadres, numbering one hundred and seventy travelled in four Sea Tiger boats from the Mullaithivu coast to the Vaakari, about 64 km north of Batticaloa, disembarked at around 1.30pm.

Sunday's convoy sailed after an agreement was brokered by the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) which is tasked with overseeing the cease-fire agreement between the Sri Lanka government and the LTTE.

The four boats, each with an SLMM monitor, left Vanni coast Sunday morning around 8.30 carrying LTTE members who are going on leave to their home villages in the east.

The convoy is scheduled to leave Vaakarai for Mullaitivu Monday morning with eighty LTTE members who would be reporting for duty there, SLMM sources said.