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Thousands of civilians at risk: Sri Lanka monitors

B. Muralidhar Reddy

Army making an all-out effort to oust the Tigers from the Vaharai region

COLOMBO: The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) on Tuesday said that continuing violence in the Batticaloa and Trincomalee districts in the east not only puts the Cease-Fire Agreement (CFA) into great danger, but also jeopardises lives of thousands of innocent civilians, especially internally displaced people in the LTTE-controlled Vaharai area.

In a statement here, the SLMM said it is deeply concerned over the escalating violence in the area between Batticaloa and Trincomalee in the east part of Sri Lanka. There is marked escalation in fighting between the two sides after the November 27 "Heroes' Day" speech of LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran that "Sinhala duplicity of war and peace" has left Tamils with little option but to pursue Eelam.

All indications are that east is to witness bloody battles between the two sides.

The SLA appears to be making an all-out effort to oust the Tigers from the Vaharai region. The rebel faction LTTE leader, "Col." Karuna has been quoted in the local media as saying that Tigers have vacated one-third of the area.

A hapless SLMM has been under attack from the Tigers as well as the Sri Lanka Government. The LTTE is agitated over the SLMM for its perceived failure to "condemn" Colombo for its alleged violations of the CFA whereas the Government is miffed with the monitors for their alleged failure to condemn reported use of civilians as "human shield" by the Tigers in the battle zone.

The SLMM in its statement said the LTTE has failed to protect civilians in Vaharai by restricting their movements. "It is the responsibility of the LTTE to do their utmost to facilitate for these innocent civilians to reach safe ground. The SLMM has, contrary to acceptable practices on one occasion, experienced that civilians were being hindered from exiting the area."

At the same time, the mission lamented that it has not been able to monitor the situation as well as it would have wanted as monitors have been continuously refused access by the army into the areas of concern.

"The SLA has cited security reasons for this. SLMM has on countless occasions tried to patrol into Vaharai and most recently in the Kallar area for inspections. Restriction of SLMM access by Government of Sri Lanka forces to areas where violations may have taken place is in itself a violation of the CFA and more importantly, prevents the SLMM from working according to its mandate given to them by the parties".

JVP quits forum

The ultra-nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) on Tuesday quit the All-Parties Representative Conference constituted by President Mahinda Rajapaksa to aid him in resolution of the ethnic conflict.

The ostensible reason for the decision of the JVP the "majority report" of the experts' panel, which submitted its recommendations to Mr. Rajapaksa last week. The report has called for maximum devolution and merger of north and east as one province.

JVP leader Somawanse Amarasinghe said that his party did not want to go down in history as a member of an institution that would take a decision "hostile" to the country.

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