THAMILCHELVAN TELLS ERIC SOLHEIM THEY WOULD NOT BUDGE AN INCH FROM THE WAN ELA ILLEGAL MILITARY CAMP IN KINNIYA
By Walter Jayawardhana reporting from Los Angeles
August 14.10.45 AM:S. P. Thamilchelvan totally rejected the verdict of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission and told Norway’s Special Envoy Eric Solheim that the Liberation of Tamil Eelam would not even budge an inch from the Wan Ela military camp in Kinniya, near the port city of Trincomalee.
The political head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam , S. P. Thamilchelvan took a new stand with Eric Solheim, which the rebel group did not take at the initial stages of the conflict and said the Kurunkupanchan camp as they prefer to call it had existed long before the ceasefire agreement between the parties had been signed 18 months ago.
Blaming the newspapers of the South to have created the problem, Thamilchelvan said when the old military camp was being repaired it had been reported as a new encroachment on Sri Lanka government controlled territory.
It was not the newspapers that discovered the illegal military camp. The Sri Lanka Army discovered the illegal encroachment just a day or two after the rebel group encroached on the bare land. Thereafter the LTTE used the US based Lankapage web site to plant their stories supporting their claim. Lankapage is owned by Gamini Gunaratne based in the state of Indiana.
The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission and the Sri Lanka Army maintained that about two months ago the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam encroached on the territory of the Sri Lanka government and built a new military camp violating the ceasefire agreement.
Defense Secretary Austin Fernando said it was left for the Norway government now to take the next step when the LTTE officially rejected the verdict of the SLMM that the LTTE should give up the camp. Hence he was looking forward to the arrival of Norway’s Special Envoy, Eric Solheim.
But Eric Solheim did not indicate what the next step they were proposing to take.
Instead, he said the LTTE had so far not completed the counter proposals for the Ranil Wickremesinghe administration’s proposals for a LTTE dominated interim government for the Northern and Eastern Provinces.
He only said he was sure the LTTE would take part in the next peace talks, the Sri Lanka government had announced would be held in Paris. He said he could not announce the LTTE’s counter proposals since they were not finalized.
