SLA refuses to vacate Hartley College

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 June 2002, 14:17 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army refused to remove its camp from one of Sri Lanka's leading schools, the Point Pedro Hartley College in Jaffna. The SLA's Jaffna commander has conveyed the decision to the District Additional Director of Education this week.

The school principal is yet to be informed by the SLA, sources said.

Students of Hartley College and the Pt.Pedro Methodist Girls College held mass demonstration, picketing and boycott of classes on May 23 demanding the immediate removal of SLA camps from their school under the terms of the ceasefire agreement.

Following the student protests, the SLA vacated its camp in the Pt.Pedro Methodist Girls College but refused to vacate the checkpoints and bunkers from the entrances to the school.

An education official said the SLA's refusal is a clear violation of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by the government and the Liberation Tigers.

The SLA established a major camp in the heart Pt. Pedro town encompassing several buildings of the two schools, houses and government buildings following the capture of the Jaffna peninsula in 1996.

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