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Attempts to lift peace hopes by several thousands of people joining a peace march in Jaffna on Saturday was marred by a renewed series of Tigers military assaults on the Jaffna peninsula, including artillery attacks on the Army's Elephant Pass base. More than sixty organisations in the north participated in the march, organised by the People's Council for Peace and Goodwill. According to reports from Jaffna, it took some three hours for the entire march to reach the Duraiyappah Stadium where it ended. However,
in what has been seen by some observers as a last-ditch Tiger attempt Government officials deplored the timing of the latest terrorist offensive. "They launched fresh assaults on the day that [former Norwegian Foreign Minister] Vollebaek consulted with the government aboiut peace talks, and they did it again this weekend with a series of attacks coinciding with a peace rally in Jaffna," one official said. "They're always asking the government to pull back the army, but they are the ones launching all the offensives," the official said. Saturday's
peace march
commenced at 9.20 am opposite the historic Jaffna Nallur Kanthasamy temple
and went through the main streets of Jaffna. Hindu, Christian and a few
Buddhist priests were also in the march. Some of
the slogans at the march were "Stop the war immediately, we want
peace; start the peace talks promptly, accept a neutral third party
facilitation and mediation to end the conflict, conduct the negotiations
on the basis of justice, without aiming at political gains, join hands to
stop the war and establish peace". At the
end of the march, a memorandum was handed over to the Government Agent of
Jaffna K. Shunmuganathan, to be submitted to the President. Copies of the
memorandum were also handed over to the representatives of the expatriate
non-governmental organisations currently serving in the peninsula. Government
sources said that the people in the north have reacted positively to the
peace process since they had understood the government's efforts to end
the war. The Tamils have repeatedly confessed their frustrations and harassments from the LTTE as well as from the security forces during security checks. The military sources have however, explained the difficulties in distinguishing the Tigers from the Tamil people in such instances where the Tigers motive was use the Tamil civilians as covers for them to hide.
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