THOUSANDS OF TROOPS ARRIVE AT KALLAR CAMP AS AIR FORCE POUNDS MAVIL ARU AREA AND A TENSE ATMOSPHERE IS CREATED AS TAMIL TIGERS THREATEN TO RETALIATE FIERCELY IF ARMY TRIES TO OPEN THE CLOSED IRRIGATION CANAL
(By Walter Jayawardhana)
Los Angeles:- Thousands of Sri Lanka troops arrived at Kallar junction and Sri Lanka Army’s Deputy Chief of Staff Major General Nanda Mallawaarachchi was visiting the area instructing last minute preparations while the Sri Lanka Air force jets pounded LTTE camps around Mavil Aru preparing an offensive to open an Irrigation canal that had been closed by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam(LTTE).
To prepare the ground for the troops to enter the closed sluice gates Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) Kfir jets July 29 flew three bombing sorties over the Mavilaru area south of Trincomalee district.
A tense full atmosphere was created as the LTTE Trincomalee District political head S. Elilan in a letter to the head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission said that the Sri Lanka armed forces were taking steps to move troops by land to LTTE controlled Mavil Aru. The LTTE controlled Tamil Net website quoted him as saying, "We would retaliate fiercely if Sri Lankan troopers enter our Mavilaru area. It will lead to serious consequence."
Thousands of farmers whose lands of agriculture of more than 35,000 acres were ruined by the acts of the terrorists of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam were still converging at Kallar junction close to the blocked irrigation canal and tried to march to the Mavil Aru sluice gates led by parliamentarian Buddhist monk Athureliye Rathana Thero. Without listening to the Army who were instructing not to go they started marching towards the sluice gates through the jungle. They were stopped by Major General Mallawarachchi when they were about 2 kilometers away from their destination. They were persuaded by Major General Mallawarachchi not to go there since it was a military task to open the sluice gates. He let the Buddhist monk parliamentarian speak to the Commander of the Army Lt. General Sarath Fonseka over his cell phone and thereafter Rathana Thero agreed to return to Kallar junction where they were earlier congregated.
In the evening about 3 p.m. President Mahinda Rajapaksa sent his representative to meet the restive farmers whose farmlands have been already ruined by the act of the terrorists of the LTTE. Eye witnesses said most of the farms were rice fields , that need lot of water. The rice fields have been starved of water since July 20 and the young plants are drying out in the intense heat of the Eastern Province summer. S. M. Chandrasena Minister of Agrarian Service who met the farmers said he had specific instructions from the President of the country to compensate their loss of agricultural products under an agrarian insurance scheme. The other two demands of the farmers were that they should be given a dry food subsidy by the government due to the act of the terrorists and the road from Kanthale to the sluice gate should be repaired. All demands were granted.
