International   

Arrests of LTTE men trigger fresh crisis

By V.S. Sambandan

COLOMBO July 4. As the dust barely settled in eastern Sri Lanka after last week's clashes between Tamils and Muslims, a standoff between the security forces and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) over the arrests of five rebel cadres in the eastern Trincomalee district has now come as a challenge to the fragile ceasefire between the Sri Lankan Government and the rebels.

The arrests were made on Wednesday in two separate incidents. The Tigers have taken the position that they were ``unarmed cadres'', while the Army, which arrested two of the five rebels, has said that they carried ``forged National Identity cards and a hand-held communication set''. The Army in its daily report to the Sri Lanka Peace Secretariat said the suspects had ``admitted that they were from the LTTE.'' The three other rebels were reportedly arrested by the Navy. R. Sampanthan, parliamentary leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), which contested the last elections with the backing of the Tigers, termed the arrests as ``a violation of the ceasefire agreement'' and said as ``there was no offence whatever of which the LTTE members were even suspected, their arrest was illegal and they are entitled to be released.''

The rebels have blamed "members of the security forces who are engaged in sabotaging the implementation of the ceasefire agreement'' for the arrests.

A. Ruban, LTTE's Trincomalee district political secretary, was quoted by the Tamilnet website as having told reporters in the eastern town today that "it would be difficult to carry forward the peace process if the unwarranted arrests and humiliation of our members, for no reason, continue.''

Previous standoffs over arrests of rebels made since the Norwegian-brokered ceasefire were resolved with the intervention of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission. With the Army having communicated the latest arrests to the Peace Secretariat, the Government's arm that oversees the implementation of the ceasefire, the matter is likely to engage the attention of the security forces and rebels in the coming days.

The Sri Lanka Army has decided to open a key highway linking central Sri Lanka to the eastern town of Batticaloa within a fortnight. Steps were being taken to open the sections of the A5 highway, which connects Kandy in central Sri Lanka to Batticaloa in the east, that were closed for the past seven years due to fighting. While the opening up of the A9 highway, which connects Kandy and Jaffna in April, made civilian movement by road possible to Jaffna, the latest decision, if implemented, would result in the restoration of road links between central and eastern Sri Lanka.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

International

News: Front Page | National | Southern States | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary |

Stories in this Section

• Polls not a substitute for plebiscite: Pak.
• Straw to visit India, Pakistan
• Arrests of LTTE men trigger fresh crisis
• Pak. allocates Rs.14 billion for religious schools
• Situation worsening, says PPP
• 'Runaway bride' makes it to the altar
• Blair holds talks on Northern Ireland
• Pak. sets up forward airbases
• Revise policy, Hong Kong Govt. told
• Palestinian security officials defiant
• Rebel threats close local governments in Colombia
• U.N. mission in Bosnia gets a brief reprieve
• Statue damaged
• Africa Union launch next week
• India not keen on promoting trade: Bangladesh Minister
• 'India trying to float third front in J&K'

Copyright © 2002, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu