"Army harasses LTTE political activists in Trinco" - Elilan

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 December 2004, 20:54 GMT]
"Sri Lankan Army soldiers are engaged in a planned way to disrupt our political activities in the Trincomalee district", Trincomalee district political head of the LTTE, Mr. S. Elilan, told TamilNet Wednesday from Eachchilampathu by telephone. He said that he and his group were delayed more than three hours at the Kaddaiparichchan Sri Lankan Army (SLA) checkpoint when they were on their way to LTTE controlled Muttur east Saturday. They were again stopped at Mahinthapura SLA checkpoint Wednesday, he said.

A group of political activists of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Trincomalee led by their district political head Mr. S.Elilan were stopped at Mahindapura checkpoint by soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army Wednesday evening when they were proceeding in three motor bikes to the LTTE controlled villages in the Eachchilampathu division to look after the welfare of flood affected families.

"We showed our identity cards. Thereafter soldiers said that we would be allowed to enter LTTE controlled area only after getting permission from their superiors. We were delayed at the checkpoint. Soldiers contacted their superiors through their communication system and then allowed us to go to Eachchilampathu where several villages had been affected by flood," said Mr.Elilan.

Mr.Elilan immediately brought this incident to the monitors of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) in the east port town.

"The SLA should stop this harassment to our political workers if they wanted to maintain good relationship with us," said Mr.Elilan.

He further said that last Saturday also he and his group were delayed more than three hours at the Kaddaiparichchan army checkpoint when they were on their way to LTTE controlled Muttur east.

"If this trend were to continue then no purpose would be served in meeting army officials regularly with the facilitation of the SLMM", he told TamilNet.