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| Sunday, 26 September 2004 |
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Nagar Kovil: No mutual pull back by Ranga Jayasuriya The Defence Ministry had written to the SLMM rejecting a proposal for a mutual pull back of the Security Forces and the LTTE from the contentious Nagarkovil forward defence line. Earlier, after consultation with both parties, the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission suggested a mutual pull back of troops from the forward defence line where the two parties have come close to a mere 20 meters from each other contravene to the Ceasefire Agreement which requires 600 meter distance between the each other's forward defence line. "We received a letter from the Government, rejecting the proposal," SLMM deputy chief Hagruph Haukland told the Sunday Observer. "The Government said the Security Forces won't pull back and it is the LTTE which infiltrated into the no man's land that should pull back". When the Ceasefire Agreement was signed on April 22, 2002, the distance between the two parties in Nagar Kovil was 500 meters. Even though the Ceasefire Agreement required the distance to be 600 meters, which is twice of the effective range of the T 56 assault rifle, the two parties agreed with the existing distance of 500 meters. The Army accuses the LTTE of slowly infiltrating into the No Man's land, thus systematically bringing its FDL forward. Haukland said the Government had demanded the LTTE infiltration to be declared as a ceasefire violation and the Tigers to pull back their cadres to the original position."We have evidence of LTTE infiltration. We have seen that in our own eyes. This is a violation of the Ceasefire Agreement," Haukland said. Earlier, the LTTE agreed for a mutual pull back from the Nagar Kovil defence line during the discussions between the SLMM chief Trond Furuhovde and LTTE political chief S.P. Thamilselvan. |
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