JVP supporters hold demo in Trinco

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 October 2004, 08:02 GMT]
A group of supporters of the Sinhala Nationalist cum Marist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), major constituent of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) held a demonstration in front of the Trincomalee office of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Commission (SLMM) Thursday around noon demanding the release of two Sinhala home guards who are in remand in Thamileelam prison on the orders of Thamileelam courts. The LTTE cadres arrested both home guards when they infiltrated into the LTTE controlled areas in the north of Trincomalee district on September 27, sources said.

Police and army soldiers provided tight security to the SLMM office, which is located along the Inner Harbour Road facing the Trincomalee harbour. The main gates of the SLMM were closed and guarded by security forces to prevent protestors entering the office premises, sources said

A spokesman of the group addressing the gathering appealed to the SLMM to take immediate step to release the two Sinhalese home guards to reduce the tension in Trincomalee where all three communities live. He warned that some elements are working to create chaos in Trincomalee to meet their own ends using the current volatile situation.

Demonstrators left the site after about one hour, SLMM sources said.

Meanwhile transport services run by state and private sectors returned to normalcy in Trincomalee town after one day general shut down called by the North East Sinhala Association (NESA) Wednesday which did not disrupt the normalcy in Tamil areas in the east port town except in Sinhala settlements, civil sources said.

In the meantime NESA spokesman said certain forces have come forward to claim responsibility for the release of two Sinhala home. His comment is noted in political circles as an indirect attack on JVP, sources said.

Till noon Thursday ten LTTE cadres ordered conditional bail by the Court of Appeal were not produced in Batticaloa magistrates' court. CA has allowed the bail applications submitted on behalf of the ten LTTE cadres with conditions that each cadre be released on cash bail of fifty thousand rupees and two sureties each signing a bond for fifty thousand rupees, legal sources said.