The Hindu : Ranil to visit Jaffna today

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Mar 14, 2002

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International

Ranil to visit Jaffna today

By Nirupama Subramanian

COLOMBO, MARCH, 13. The Sri Lankan Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, is to start a two-day visit to Jaffna on Thursday, becoming the seniormost Government leader to visit the peninsula in two decades. His visit comes three weeks after the Sri Lankan Government and the LTTE signed a mutual ceasefire aimed at starting talks on a political solution to the island's ethnic conflict.The last time Jaffna hosted a Prime Minister was in 1982 when J. R. Jayewardene campaigned there for the first Presidential election.The Prime Minister is expected to meet political and community leaders of the peninsula. He is also likely to address troops stationed in the peninsula on the ceasefire and the peace process. The Jaffna peninsula has been under the control of the Government since June 1996, when the LTTE, which had run a de facto state from there since 1990, vacated it following a Sri Lankan military operation for its recapture. In 2000, the LTTE launched an offensive to wrest it back from the Government, but its advance was halted. Under the ceasefire agreement, unarmed and out of uniform LTTE cadres are to be allowed back into the peninsula for political activities from March 22. The LTTE has announced that it will set up its first office in Jaffna at Tirunelveli on that day. Nearly 500,000 Tamil people live in the peninsula and their hopes are pinned on the ceasefire turning into a permanent peace. Their more immediate expectation is for a land route between the peninsula and the mainland. At the moment, Jaffna is connected to the rest of the country by air and sea. The main highway out of Jaffna is A 9 and it traverses through the LTTE-controlled Vanni, exiting at Vavuniya into Government-held areas. It was only last month that the closed road was reopened to civilians. But a crucial section, going north from Killinochchi to Jaffna, remains closed still, which means that the peninsula is not yet accessible by road. The LTTE controls this section upto Pallai, on the neck of the peninsula, while the army controls the portion from Jaffna town to Eluthumadduval. Under the terms of the ceasefire, this section too has to be reopened by March, 22. The Bishop of Jaffna, Thomas Sauvendaranayagam, told The Hindu last week that the LTTE had informed him it was ready to throw open its end of that section at any time. He said the onus was now on the Government to reopen without further delay the military checkpoint at Eluthumadduval, the final point of its control in Jaffna peninsula. The fishermen in the peninsula also want the Government to fully remove the security restrictions on fishing. The time and distance restrictions imposed on the fishermen by the Navy have been relaxed in recent days but the peninsula's large fishing community wants them to go completely.

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