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Military action must halt: LTTE

B. Muralidhar Reddy

Sri Lankan army acknowledges high casualties in Jaffna operations

COLOMBO: The Sri Lankan Army (SLA) on Friday acknowledged that 129 troops were killed in the battle with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on Wednesday in the Jaffna peninsula even as an uneasy calm prevailed on Forward Defence Lines (FDLs) in the peninsula.

On Thursday, the military had claimed that over 400 cadres of the Tigers had died in the flare-up.

On the other hand, the LTTE claimed that over 200 army troops were killed and only 10 of its cadres had died.

With the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) virtually confined to Colombo after the departure of the European Union members and the inability of both sides in the conflict to provide security guarantees, independent reports of the ground situation in the peninsula as well as the east is not possible.

Experts are of the view that the military suffered such high casualties as it appeared to have walked into the Tiger territory without adequate preparations. "The bulk of the deaths on the military side seems to be of an infantry unit which went missing inside the LTTE territory. Maybe, the Government has plans to take Elephant Pass before the proposed talks in Switzerland on October 28 and 29", an observer, who did not wish to be identified, said.

Offensive denied

Despite the latest developments, the Government and the LTTE are maintaining that they are prepared for resumption of dialogue.

The Tigers, however, have left the scope for a U-turn on participation in talks with the rider that they might be forced to re-think if the military offensive is not halted.

The Government is emphasising repeatedly that it is not engaged in an offensive and that all actions of the military are a response to "provocative acts" from the Tigers.

As if to underline the theme that the Government is determined to hold talks, President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Friday met many of the members of the Government delegation, including Ministers who had participated in the peace talks in February.

An official statement said Mr. Rajapaksa outlined some of the core issues that the Government intended to focus on during the talks. "These included democracy, multi-party elections, tolerance of political dissent, human rights, child soldiers, development of the north and east and devolution issues. The President was informed that the work of the All-Party Representatives Committee and the panel of experts has advanced considerably.

"The President instructed that a number of issues that have been identified by the panel of experts as causing serious concern to the minorities must be addressed immediately", it said.

The statement said the Government Peace Secretariat would organise a workshop on negotiation techniques for the members of the delegation in the lead-up to the talks. It said the full Government delegation to the talks has not been finalised yet.

Weapons seized

Separately, the army said Muhamalai remains calm after an offensive initiated by the Tigers last Wednesday. "The situation in Muhamalai remains relatively calm with sporadic artillery and mortar attacks by the Tigers", it said.

TamilNet said in a report that there are still more than 50 bodies of soldiers strewn around in the battlefield.

The LTTE's military spokesman, Irasiah Ilanthirayan, has been quoted as saying that the LTTE had seized 16 multi-purpose machine guns, four rocket-propelled grenade launchers, 98 assault rifles and ammunition from soldiers.

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