LTTE faced dead-end in Mankulam, Pooneryn

Rohan MATHES

COLOMBO: Refuting certain media reports and allegations, Media and Information Minister and Cabinet Spokesman Anura Priyadarshana Yapa reiterated that the LTTE has been completely defeated and driven out of Pooneryn and Mankulam with absolutely no hopes of a come-back.

Addressing the weekly Cabinet press briefing in Parliament yesterday, Minister Yapa categorically stated that this was a major setback to the LTTE, who had relied heavily on and consolidated their positions in Pooneryn, to attack the Government Armed Forces in the Jaffna peninsula.

“This is in no way a ‘tactical pull-out’ as some critics strive to portray. They used all means at their disposal such as the construction of bunds and various other obstacles on our path to prevent us from reaching there. Losing the A-32 route has been a major blow to them,” the Minister said. Furthermore, it has paved the way for us to open-up a road way from Colombo to Pooneryn and then to Jaffna peninsula.

“We are in a very strong position now, with LTTE’s hopes and aspirations of re-gaining their lost territory a myth,” he said.

He pointed out that while the LTTE was being defeated militarily, the APRC proposals for a sustainable solution were being negotiated simultaneously. As has been the norm in similar global conflicts, the President and the Government have consistently urged the LTTE to lay down their arms and join the negotiating table. It is up to them to adhere to these calls or face total destruction.

He stressed however that the Government was not engaged in destroying the Tamil polity, but only eradicating terrorism and paving the way for them to have a democratic environment in which they could elect their own representatives and leaders, like what has taken place in the East.

He opined that the Tamil community is also our own kith and kin, and they too should be protected from the atrocities of the fascist LTTE. How many of their own Tamil leaders like Neelan Thiruchelvam who believed in a political solution, have been killed by the LTTE?, Minister Yapa asked. Responding to queries pertaining to a General Election, Minister Yapa was of the view that a General Election would only be held in 2010.