Impromptu crossing of paths

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 August 1999, 09:41 GMT]
A group of Liberation Tigers met a troupe of artists campaigning for peace accompanied by journalists returning yesterday after a performance in Sri Lanka Army controlled Thatchanamaruthamadu, northwest of Vavuniya, and told them that "Peace cannot be brought about easily because the President is determined to wage this war."

The activists, comprising 35 people in 8 vehicles, were traveling through an area recently brought under the control of the Sri Lanka Army by Operation Ranagosa, when they were stopped by a group of Liberation Tigers.

The activists, who call themselves Artists for peace, perform songs and stage street plays against the island's ongoing war.

The LTTE members had also told the peace activists that the multi-religious delegation, which visited the Vanni region recently, had some members who were not bona fide.

The religious delegation was sent by the President Chandrika Kumaratunga, the Tigers had said.

When the activists asked the LTTE if they (Tigers) were not taking a risk by being in an area controlled by the SLA, the Tigers replied that this is their territory and they would go wherever they are ordered to.

"The Army knows we are here, they even know our names," the Tigers told the peace activists.