International   

LTTE defence breached: Colombo

COLOMBO: Amid claims by the Sri Lanka military that it has breached the “first bunker defence” of the LTTE smashing 35 bunkers and killing dozens of Tiger cadres, the LTTE on Wednesday appealed to the United Nations and the international community to “recognise the sovereignty of the Tamil nation as a constructive approach” to resolving the ethnic conflict.

In a letter addressed to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the LTTE’s head of the political wing, B. Nadesan, accused the Sri Lanka forces and government of “trampling” the rights of the Tamils and argued that the only “path open to regain the rights of the Tamil people” is through recognition of the sovereignty of the Tamil nation.

“It should be obvious to the international community by now that our organisation has demonstrated its readiness to cooperate with the international community. It should also be obvious to the international community that there is only one path open to regain the rights of the Tamil people, and that is for the international community to recognise the sovereignty of the Tamil nation. We, therefore, urge you to consider recognising Tamil sovereignty as a constructive approach to end the unending five decades long, large scale, and serious rights violations against the Tamil people.”

Nadesan called the attention of the Secretary-General to what he termed as “the massacre yesterday of 18 Tamils, including 12 children travelling in a bus” in Mannar district and accused the military of deliberately targeting the school bus. The Sri Lanka government has denied the charges levelled by Tigers. Separately, the Defence Ministry said the first bunker defence of the LTTE on Muhamalai and Nagarkovil fronts in the Jaffna peninsula were destroyed in a “surprise attack” on Wednesday morning. It said over 100 infantrymen overran the terror defences, smashing 35 bunkers occupied by Tiger cadres. The ministry further said air force fighter jets carried our simultaneous raids at LTTE strongholds in the Weddukadu, about 2 km south of Muhamalai and the pilots have confirmed that the air raids were “successful.”

It said the army continued its multi-pronged thrust at the Wanni defence on Tuesday “inflicting heavy damage to LTTE terrorists and claimed to have killed 43 cadres of the Tigers during the clashes” in the Vavuniya and Mannar fronts.

On the Mannar front, the ministry said troops beat off the Tigers after dislodging 15 LTTE bunkers in a series of attacks. At Pallaikkuli, infantrymen destroyed six bunkers, killing at least 12 LTTE cadres.

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

Stories in this Section

McCain emerges Republican front-runner
Suu Kyi proposes talks at the highest level
LTTE defence breached: Colombo
Afghan Senate endorses death penalty for reporter
50 injured in Nepal serial blasts
Haiti’s poor eat mud cookies

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu