LTTE says Pullumalai bunker in area under its control

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 December 2003, 16:08 GMT]
The bunker of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in Pullumalai in the Batticaloa district, about which the Sri Lanka Army has complained to the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, lies within the LTTE-controlled area, the LTTE has told the SLMM, according to a spokesman at the SLMM’s Batticaloa office.

Mr. E. Kousalyan, the LTTE’s political head in Batticaloa-Amparai, categorically denied that the LTTE was building any new sentry, bunker or camp in the SLA-controlled areas of Pullumalai. He said the matter was discussed with SLA officers during a meeting the LTTE had with SLA on December 15, and the area where the said bunker is located is well within the LTTE’s control.

The SLMM official said that the matter was investigated at their weekly meeting Monday, attended also by LTTE and SLA officials, and it has been referred to the head of the SLMM.

He said that both the LTTE and the SLA had claimed the area came under their control. Therefore, the local SLMM officials would await the head’s directions, but since there is no defining boundary in the Pullumalai area to demarcate the control by the SLA and the LTTE, the SLMM would have to carefully study the matter.