UNF minister questions SL President's silence over LTTE camp

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 November 2003, 16:58 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Tourism Minister, Mr. Gamini Lokuge, Friday queried the President, Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunga, as to what had happened to her warning to then Defense Minister to remove the Kurankupanchchan LTTE camp within ten days, as she had said it had been established after the signing of the ceasefire agreement between the UNF government and the LTTE on February 22 last year.

"More than ten days have gone since the take-over of the defense ministry from the UNF’s minister, Mr.Tilak Marapone, by the President. Ms.Kumaratunge still maintains silence on the Kurankupanchchan LTTE camp removal issue," Mr. Lokuge pointed out while speaking at the budget debate when the parliament resumed its sitting Friday afternoon, parliamentary sources said.

Mr. Lokuge said that the reason for the President's silence on this issue was that any action taken to remove the Kurankupanchchan LTTE camp would end in starting another war and that was why the President was maintaining silence over the issue even after she had assumed powers of the defense ministry, parliamentary sources said.

Though the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission had given its determination on the Kurankupanchchan dispute in favor of the government, the LTTE from the start of the dispute has maintained that their camp at Kurankupanchchan area in Kinniya division in Trincomalee district has been in existence even before the signing of the ceasefire agreement with the UNF government, political sources said.

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