Flash News

[kuruvikal]

<span style='color:red'><b>Lankan Army ready to give protection to Karuna </b>

Colombo, Apr 12 (UNI) Denying reports that renegade Eastern leader of the LTTE, Colonel Karuna, has flown out of Sri Lanka with the help of the army, Chief of Defence Staff and Army Commander Lt Gen Lional Balagalle said this evening that the government was prepared to give protection if he sought it.

''Karuna is well within the Eastern region at the moment. As far as we are concerned, we are bound to give that sort of protection if he asks for it in keeping with the international norms on humanitarian laws,'' Gen Balagalle said over the phone, adding that it applied same to everybody.

Refusing to comment whether such request is forthcoming, Gen Ballagalle said that the army and the government believed that anybody could be rehabilitated.

The reaction from the government for the first time came after the LTTE launched a fierce military operation against Karuna and his loyalist in the Batticaloa-Amparai district in the Eastern province of Sri Lanka.

Hundreds of heavily armed cadres of the LTTE launched the operation on Friday to get rid of him and his loyalists out of the North-East and by this evening, almost all the areas which remained under the iron arm of Karuna had fallen into the hands of the LTTE fighting formations.

Several military units of the LTTE, which moved from different directions, took control of Kokkadichcholai, where Karuna had a propaganda office, including a newspaper and two rest houses, namely Meenaham and Thenaham.

Meanwhile, Karuna's women military wing in-charge of Batticaloa-Amparai district, Venuka, in an interview with the BBC Tamil service said that Karuna had dissolved almost all his units and was keeping with him only about ten of his close confidantes in the thick jungles.

''I met him this evening along with only about ten of his close confidantes. I am sure he would have either flown out of the country or was at least in Colombo to fly overseas,'' she said.

Venuka said that she was held under the iron arm of Karuna and was forced to carry out his orders even after he decided to reject the LTTE leadership. She said that she had now explained the plight of 600 women cadres under her command to the LTTE leaders and happily joined back the mainstream rebel forces under the leadership of Velupillai Prabhakaran.

Sources of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) said that Col Ramesh, who was appointed by the LTTE leadership to replace renegade Karuna, was visible moving in the Eastern Batticaloa district. </span>