Jaffna agitation to student's death, spontaneous- Ilamparithi

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 March 2005, 18:31 GMT]
Refuting allegations by Sri Lanka military that "LTTE was behind the public protest after the death of a student by an army vehicle," Head of LTTE Political Wing for Jaffna district, Mr Ilamparithy said "not a single political cadre of the LTTE was involved in the public agitation" in a press release issued Saturday after an LTTE delegation met with Sri Lanka Army delegation, sources said. The meeting was arranged by the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) in an effort to bring the tensed climate in Jaffna under control after the death of Vembadi Girls School student Thulashika and a civilian who was shot dead allegedly by Sri Lanka Police Friday.

The delegation of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam was led by Mr.Ilamparithi and the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) delegation was led by Major General Sunil Tennekon, Jaffna area commander, security sources said.

Excerpts from LTTE's press release follow:

"LTTE delegation had brought to the notice of the conference that more accidents take place in Jaffna district compared to the south because of more sentry points and camps of the SLA are located in the north, especially in densely populated areas.

"Another reason for the increase of accidents in the north is the scant respect Sri Lanka soldiers show to the Tamil civilians living in the north that leads to negligent driving habits by soldiers driving vehicles at high speed with irresponsible use of road space.

"We cannot dismiss these incidents where innocent Tamil lives are taken away as mere accidents. According to the ceasefire agreement all roads, which are needed to bring normalcy in the movement of people, should be re-opened and the use of heavy army vehicle in densely populated areas should be stopped, LTTE delegation had stressed at the conference.

"We strongly denied the allegation made by military spokesman that LTTE was behind the public protest after the death of a student by an army vehicle. We further told that not a single political cadre of the LTTE was involved in the public agitation. The Senior Police Superintendent and the Jaffna area commander of the SLA had accepted our response. We stated that the military spokesman had made the baseless allegation to discredit the LTTE, " Mr.Ilamparithi said in the press release.

"We gave the Identification Number of the policeman who fired at the elderly person Mr. M. Kathirgamu (65), killing him at the entrance to the Jaffna University Friday afternoon," Mr.Ilamparithi said.