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Trinco hartal suspended but tension continues
By Santhush Fernando and Asif Fuard in Trincomalee
A fresh effort by service commanders and the Inspector General of Police to resolve the crisis between an LTTE-backed organisation and the JVP-backed organisations in the Trincomalee town ended in a deadlock yesterday, but the hartal campaign in the city was suspended for three days pending a government decision on the issue of placing a Buddhist statue.

As attempts to resolve the crisis failed, a grenade explosion was reported last night from the Mihindupura area of the Trinco town. Defence Secretary Asoka Jayawardena and security chiefs flew in to Trincomalee last morning to preside over a conference to resolve the issue over the replacing of a small Buddha statue with a large one. Buddhist representatives boycotted the meeting, but JVP Parliamentarian Jayantha Wijesekara represented them.

Tamil groups represented by V. Vigneshwaran informed the security chiefs that they were expecting a response from the government within the next three days and would suspend the hartal till then. The Tamil groups are demanding that the new Buddha statue unveiled last Sunday be removed.

The Defence Secretary told the Tamil delegation he would consult President Chandrika Kumaratunga on the matter but said he could not assure any deadline would be met. After this meeting, the security chiefs went to the Jayasunamaramya temple in the town for a meeting with some Buddhist monks.

During the talks, Ven. Dehiowita Piyatissa Thera told the Defence chiefs that they would not remove the Buddha statue. The four-day hartal has had serious repercussions on the civilians in the Trincomalee district after shops, banks, filling stations and Government institutions closed. The hartal has deprived public servants and pensioners of their May payments and they may have to wait until Wednesday because of the Vesak holidays. Large numbers of poor pensioners hopefully gathered at banks on Friday but they waited in vain. One of them, T. Arumugam, said he barely survived with his pension and could not wait till Wednesday or Thursday.

Most of the shops ran short of food and other essentials by yesterday, though a few of them were opened. The town was rocked with fresh incidents on Friday with a Buddhist statue being damaged by unidentified persons late in the night. Transport services were also crippled largely because the filling stations were shut down.

Eastern Province police chief Neville Wijeysinghe said the hartal was ending but tension was still prevalent and normal life had not been restored.

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