LTTE, SLA meeting in Batticaloa postponed indefinitely

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 September 2004, 09:47 GMT]
The meeting between Liberation Tigers and Sri Lankan armed forces in Battiicaloa will not take place as scheduled today, a spokesperson for the Nordic truce monitors said. The meeting was first fixed for 3 September following a meeting between Col. Ramesh, special commander of LTTE forces in the Batticaloa-Amparai District and Maj. Gen. (ret) Trond Furuhovde, head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission last week. It was postponed for Tuesday after Col. Ramesh and other senior LTTE officials had to leave for the Vanni.

No new date has been fixed for the meeting, Nordic truce monitors in Batticaloa said.

Col. Ramesh and his colleagues have not returned from the Vanni to Batticaloa, LTTE officials in the east said.

Meanwhile, Mr. E. Kousalyan, head of the LTTE's political division for the Batticaloa- Amparai district was quoted in Uthayan, a Jaffna daily, as saying that talks with the Sri Lankan armed forces were futile.