Archives

Army wants enhanced powers for SLMM

by Ranil Wijayapala

The Sri Lanka Army wants the powers of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) enhanced to check all weapons and military establishments and monitor LTTE activities before displaced civilians are allowed to be resettled in the high security zones (HSZs), well-placed defence sources said yesterday.

Jaffna Army Commander Major General Sarath Fonseka on Saturday handed over the first proposal on the resettling of displaced civilians in the HSZs in Jaffna to the Head of the SLMM Trond Furuhovde. The report handed over to the SLMM by Major General Fonseka has emphasized that all LTTE cadres should be disarmed in the areas of HSZs before allowing the displaced civilians to resettle in those areas.

The LTTE should not be allowed to engage in any activities in the areas of HSZs and only the original inhabitants will be allowed to resettle in these areas, the report had emphasized. The SLMM is due to hand over the proposals by the Army to the LTTE in Killinochchi this morning after a close study, SLMM spokesman Teitur Torkelson told the Daily News yesterday.

"These are only proposals by one party on the resettlement of displaced civilians in the HSZs. The final decision should be reached after the two parties discussed these proposals together", he added. The proposals made by Major General Fonseka will be forwarded to the LTTE's Northern Commander Colonel Thileepan for consideration.

Major General Fonseka handed over these proposals in accordance with the agreement reached at the second meeting of the Sub Committee on De-escalation and Normalisation (SDN) held in Muhamalai on December 14.

Army Commander Lt. General Lionel Balagalle also told the Daily News yesterday the report handed over to the SLMM by Major General Sarath Fonseka was only a proposal to be discussed at the SDN meeting.

"The LTTE is in a bit of a hurry in this regard but things have to be done systematically", he added.

There are around 10,000 civilian houses within the seven high security zones, at Palaly, Nagarkovil, Point Pedro, Muahamalai, Thanankilappu, Ariyalai and Colombuthurai in the Jaffna peninsula and the LTTE demands that civilians should be allowed to resettle in these areas immediately.

However, the Security Forces also made their concerns known as to why the LTTE is not interested in resettling people in over 50,000 houses outside the HSZs.

News | Business | Features | Editorial | Security
Politics | World | Letters | Sports | Obituaries |

Produced by Lake House
Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
Comments and suggestions to :Web Manager