SLA, LTTE to meet again in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 31 August 2004, 13:34 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers in Batticaloa said Tuesday they will meet Sri Lankan armed forces again after a long gap on Friday 3 September. The decision was announced following a discussion between Col. Ramesh, special commander of LTTE forces in the Batticaloa-Amparai District and Maj. Gen. (ret) Trond Furuhovde, head of the Nordic monitoring mission in Sri Lanka, Tuesday in Kokkaddicholai, 15 kilometres southwest of Batticaloa.

Head of LTTE's political division for Batticaloa Amparai, Mr. E. Kousalyan and area commander, Mr. Ramanan also took part in the meeting with the truce monitors' chief at the Solaiyaham conference centre near Kokkaddicholai.

Monitoring mission chief emphasised the need to stabilise the ceasefire agreement during the discussion.

He told the Tigers that there is concern over incidents in the east which are destabilising the ceasefire. He explained the need to stop the incidents and restart talks to rebuild mutual trust between Colombo and the Tigers.

Col. Ramesh told Maj. Gen. Furuhovde that the murder of Mr. Senathy, the LTTE's political chief for Batticaloa town and Mr. Bawa, a senior LTTE official was a set back for peace as both of them had maintained cordial relations with the Sri Lankan armed forces in the past.

Murders of LTTE cadres will adversely affect the peace, Col. Ramesh said.

The Nordic truce monitors met LTTE in Thambiluvil, 74 kilometres south of Batticaloa, Tuesday.

The truce mission's chief for the Amparai district discussed the current state of relations between the LTTE and the Special Task Force (STF), the elite counter insurgency arm of the Sri Lankan armed forces, in the Amparai district.