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Sri Lankan envoy to India justifies strikes on LTTE bases

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

New Delhi, April 29, IRNA
India-Lankan envoy
Justifying the armed forces' strike on bases of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on April 26 and 27, High Commissioner of Sri Lanka in India C J Jayasinghe said the attack was a follow-up of the LTTE's attack on the army's headquarters in which 10 people were killed and 26 other personnel were injured besides the army chief.

"The attacks on the LTTE bases were an attempt to safeguard the lives of its people," he said.

"Those in uniform, too, have freedom of life," he added.

The Sri Lankan government had no other option but to launch strikes on the LTTE bases in the eastern areas as there was immense provocation by the terrorist organization, he explained while talking to media people here.

He denied the LTTE's allegations that thousands of civilians had left their homes following the air attacks by the Lankan armed forces.

Only a few people in the Sampur and Foul Point areas of Trincomalee, where the attacks took place, left and they, too, have been accommodated in schools and churches, he said.

The government had set up a task force to ensure essential services and commodities were made available to the people.

The LTTE's claim on the number of civilian deaths and evacuation was "grossly exaggerated," he said.

Hoping that the LTTE would exercise restraint and come back to the negotiating table, Jayasinghe said Colombo had never dragged its feet on the peace process.

"The February 22, 2002 ceasefire agreement had opened a window for peace. The Lankan government will not close that window." But escalation in violence by the LTTE has dented that ceasefire.

He alleged that there had been 72 attacks or incidents involving Tigers since 2002 in which 54 security and police personnel were killed and 83 of them injured.

In addition, he said, 19 civilians have also been killed and 21 injured.

According to him, the latest of these killings were those of six farmers at Gomarankadawala in Trincomalee on April 24.

The high commissioner denied that the Lankan government or its army were promoting and helping the Karuna faction of the LTTE.

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