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Government refutes President's charges

Defence Minister Tilak Marapana yesterday assured President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga that the Ministry of Defence has in no way permitted the LTTE to continue unabated serious violations of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).

Minister Marapana was replying to a letter sent to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe by President Kumaratunga, wherein she charged that the government ignored ceasefire violations by the LTTE thus endangering national security. The Prime Minister instructed the Defence Minister to reply to the letter since he was leaving for New York.

Minister Marapana requested the President to raise her concerns and reservations during her meeting with Minister Milinda Moragoda, a member of the government delegation for the Sattahip peace talks. In her letter, the President said the government should raise serious truce violations committed by the LTTE during the peace talks.

Minister Marapana's letter: "As regards the two incidents referred to in your letter as the most serious violations, I wish firstly to state that there was no incident reported in Trincomalee in the month of July this year, where the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) apprehended LTTE boats carrying stocks of weapons, ammunition and explosives. Secondly as for the incident of Vakarai coast in May 2002, one of the two trawlers given chase by the SLN exploded itself. The other trawlers given chase by the SLN exploded itself.

The other trawler was given chase until it managed to enter the shallow waters in Vakarai at which stage the SLN was forced to abandon its chase, as the SLN vessels could not navigate in shallow waters. SLN however, opened fire in self-defence and destroyed an LTTE vallam, which came towards them to attack. As the doubts expressed by you in the letter as to how peace could be achieved seems to be predicated on these two incidents I trust that this explanation would suffice to dispel any such doubt.

As for the items referred to by you, as being serious violations of the MOU by the LTTE, I wish to respond as follows.

The Defence authorities have never instructed the SLN to release LTTE boats arrested by them with arms, ammunition and explosives. On one occasion when the SLN intercepted an LTTE boat transporting a complement of LTTE cadres, the boat was detained and the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) informed of the incident.

On the intervention of the SLMM the unarmed cadres were permitted to disembark while the boat with the weapons belonging to those manning the boat were ordered by the SLMM to return to their point of origin.

Further the SLMM declared this as a violation of the MOU by the LTTE, which enhanced the status of the Government of Sri Lanka. This sea movement, however, was a movement of cadres and not a transportation of arms and ammunition. The weapons and ammunition found on board, though technically amounting to a violation of the MOU, were weapons not intended for transfer. Such sea movements by the LTTE during the past two decades were much more than the purported happenings after the ceasefire.

The intelligence reports pertaining to transfer of arms, ammunition etc are largely based on unconfirmed and unspecific sources, as Your Excellency would have noticed when reading intelligence reports which make mention of such activities. Therefore, it is not surprising that follow up action is difficult based on such intelligence.

The recruitment of cadres, child soldiers, collection of taxes and ransoms, extortions, kidnapping etc though reported in decreasing numbers are seldom substantiated by material sufficient for either the Security Forces or Police or SLMM to identify the perpetrators to take preventive or legal action. These incidents were reported in very much larger numbers prior to the ceasefire but have been appreciably decreased due to the initiatives taken by the Security Forces, SLMM and the influence yielded by international agencies such as the UNICEF.

Though there was suspicion of the movement of arms into Trincomalee District, especially to the harbour and naval area, when you raised this issue at the last National Security Council, the Commanders of the SLN and Sri Lanka Air Force confirmed that it was not an accurate information.

The establishment of institutional structures such as Courts of Law, Judges Training Institute etc are activities confined to the areas outside direct governmental control. Much less formal and ad hoc institutional arrangements and structures were in vogue in the past, in these areas.

The occasional harassment to civilians both in the North and East is not confined to Muslims alone. Such harassment has declined rapidly in areas such as the "border villages". However, wherever possible prompt action has been taken by the Security Forces, Police and SLMM to alleviate such harassment. The incidents in Muttur and Valachchenai were isolated incidents more of the nature of communal disturbances between the Tamil and Muslim communities. The Government has adopted strong measures to enhance the security in these areas and also established linkages between the two communities to minimize recurrence of such incidents. They have proved to be very successful.

As regard the other items referred to by you pertaining to arms stored in containers in the Wanni jungles and over 200 suicide cadres reported to have taken up residence in Colombo, I do not have any information whatsoever of such activity. Should you, however, be in possession of "confirmed eye witness reports" or any other material pertaining to such matters, I shall be extremely thankful if I am furnished with them for me to take appropriate action to ensure the safety and security of our people."

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