News

While thousands of refugees streamed into the Kantalai town area yesterday, the LTTE’s political wing leader S. Elilan said rebel cadres had pulled out of Mutur and gone back to their earlier positions.

With the LTTE withdrawal, the security forces began consolidating their positions and were clearing the debris and mines in the area, army sources said.

More than 25,000 people, mainly Muslim civilians, reached Kantalai last afternoon fleeing the clashes between security forces and the LTTE in the Mutur area and are being housed in schools and tents, the ICRC and local humanitarian agencies said. The ICRC Communications Co-coordinator Davide Vlgnati said ICRC lorries had taken relief supplies from Trincomalee to Kantalai with the assistance of the Sri Lanka Red Cross.Tents were also sent to the area to shelter the displaced people, he said.

There are at least another 5,000 people who are remaining in Mutur and they are being sheltered in schools in the area. There are also another 15,000 Tamil refugees in Kilivetti also in the Mutur area.

Among the high profile visitors to Mutur area yesterday were Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission chief Ulf Henricsson and SLMC leader Rauff Hakeem.

The LTTE’s Trinco leader S. Elilan speaking from his base in Sampur said the LTTE cadres had ceased their operations and returned to their original positions.

He said 32 of their cadres were killed in the four days of fighting in Mutur. “We only attacked identified Army targets,” he said.

Commenting on the controversy over the Mavilaru anicut, Elilan said whatever decision taken at the discussion between the LTTE political wing leader S.P. Thamilselvan and the Norwegian special envoy Jon Hanssen Baur, they would abide by it. Mr. Hanssen Baur travelled to Jaffna yesterday to meet with officials there and is scheduled to meet Mr. Thamilselvan today.

Mr. Baur will be spending the night in Kilinochchi along with the Norwegian Ambassador Hans Brattskar.

Meanwhile, Government defence spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella told The Sunday Times last night that it was not a case of LTTE withdrawing from Mutur, but a case of the Tigers being pushed out by the Army.