TMVP vows not to disarm till LTTE is wiped out

The TMVP yesterday reiterated that they would not disarm until the LTTE is totally wiped out.

TMVP spokesperson Azath Moulana said that they will not lay down their arms as the threat by the LTTE still prevailed.

The TMVP's refusal to disarm came amidst claims by Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse and Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona that only the police and security forces were entitled to bear arms.

The government however has not taken any steps to disarm the TMVP.

Moulana said the LTTE's presence in the north was a threat to the breakaway faction and added that the LTTE had to be wiped out from the country before they could surrender their weapons.

The TMVP cadres were attacked on several occasions in the east during the local government elections in Batticaloa in February, he charged.

The TMVP blamed the LTTE for these attacks despite government claims that terrorism was totally wiped out from the east.

"The LTTE's strength is its military wing and the intelligence wing. Once they are destroyed, automatically, the LTTE would be powerless. Both these factors have been destroyed in the east," he said.

Uduman Lebbe, a UPFA minister at the eastern provincial council on Monday also called for the disarming of the TMVP, due to the many allegations of child recruitment and abductions.