Sri Lanka Government team arrives for Jaffna garrison talks

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 April 2003, 12:12 GMT]
Commander of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), Lieutenant General Lionel Balagalle, and Additional Secretary to Ministry of Defence, Karaliyadde, are arriving in Jaffna Wednesday afternoon for discussions with Tamil Officials related to identifying a suitable location to move the existing SLA garrison, sources in Jaffna said.

Tamil National Alliance (TNA) members of Parliament Joseph Pararajasingham, Maavai Senathirajah and Sampanthan are also arriving in Jaffna for the discussions. They will be joined by G.G.Gajendrakumar, M.K. Sivajilingam, N. Raviraj and others for the meeting with the Sri Lanka Government delegation, sources said.

The Government delegation is also expected to meet public representatives during their stay in Jaffna.

An earlier effort by the SLA to move the Jaffna garrison encompassing two hotels and about eighty civilians' houses between Stanley Road and Victoria Road in the heart of Jaffna town to another central location close to Jaffna Library, Jaffna Fort and Vembadi Girls school was suspended following protests by Tamil civil organizations and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

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