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LTTE supporters ask EPDP to leave Jaffna by yearend

K Venkataramanan in Colombo

Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam supporters in Sri Lanka have issued an ultimatum to the anti-LTTE group, Eelam People's Democratic Party, to vacate the northern Jaffna peninsula by December 31.

There was tension in the peninsula on Wednesday after groups representing fishermen, students, and government employees began a widespread protest marked by the closure of government offices and some business establishments.

There have already been stray protests in the last four days against the presence of the EPDP in Delft, an island off Jaffna.

The protesters plan to widen their agitation across the peninsula in a bid to force the main non-LTTE party out of the region.

The International Tamil Eelam Students' Federation and other civil society organisations met on Tuesday to pass a resolution demanding the EPDP's exit from Delft by the yearend.

The development is likely to attract political and diplomatic attention in Colombo, as it contradicts LTTE chief negotiator Anton Balasingham's claim in Thailand recently that the Tigers would respect political pluralism in the north and east of the island.

The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, when asked by the protesters to rule the EPDP's return as a violation of truce, has made it clear that it will not interfere in local politics and law and order matters.

The EPDP, which has two MPs in the parliament, had been forced out of Delft, after a group of miscreants attacked its office last month. The party alleged that a local LTTE functionary led the attack.

But nearly 40 members returned on Saturday after the situation appeared to be calm. They set up their offices with police and naval protection.

LTTE political wing leader S P Thamilselvan alleged that the EPDP was trying to create confusion in the islands. He also claimed that their return to Delft was a violation of ceasefire terms.

But EPDP general secretary Douglas Devananda said his party had a legitimate right to return to Delft both for political activity and to revive the functioning of the Pradeshiya Sabha, which it controls.

The EPDP is one of the militant groups that joined the democratic mainstream in the wake of the 1987 Indo-Sri Lanka Accord.

These groups, however, continued to bear arms for their self-defence until the current ceasefire accord with the LTTE.

Devananda's party had been controlling the islands with the help of the Navy for many years until the LTTE made its entry through its political wing.

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