Army blames LTTE for attack

by Chamikara Weerasinghe

The Army yesterday blamed the LTTE for Sunday's claymore mine attack in Kondavil which killed six soldiers.

Army spokesman Brigadier Nalin Witharanage yesterday said that the LTTE was totally responsible for Sunday's attack.

Brigadier Witharanage said that the LTTE appears to have resorted to their usual tactics of denying the attack with the Scandinavian Ceasefire monitors, the SLMM.

"This is not a surprising situation for the military, because this was not the first occasion that they have denied an attack," he said, adding that the attack was a clear violation of the Ceasefire Agreement.

He further said that LTTE was in the habit of denying their attacks on the military whenever Sri Lankan Army lodges a complaint against them with the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission.

Head of Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission Hagrup Haukland yesterday said the LTTE was denying any hand in the Sunday's Claymore mine attack.

The LTTE put the blame on other armed elements in the region, Haukland said.

The LTTE has also denied responsibility for attacks on several army checkpoints in the Northeast.

" When we asked the LTTE about the attacks, they said that other armed elements were responsible for the Sunday's incident. However the Army said that the LTTE was responsible for the attack," Haukland said.

Asked if they wanted any assistance from the government to defuse the situation, Haukland said that the SLMM has maintained good relations with the Government and the LTTE.

Meanwhile, The LTTE and the Government needs to sit down and talk about the Ceasefire, SLMM spokesperson Helen Olaffdottir said.

She admitted that implementation of the Ceasefire has become "very difficult" as there had been an overwhelming number of CFA violations which need to be reviewed.

"The Government and the LTTE should sit down and talk to address these concerns, " she added. Asked to comment on the criticism levelled against the SLMM by certain parties that it was biased towards the LTTE, she dismissed them saying SLMM has no stake in the process and it has taken the job of monitoring on a mandate given by the Government and the LTTE.

"Besides, we are not here to answer political parties but to do the job of monitoring the CFA, " she said.