The Sri Lankan government has explained the shelling of the Mavil Aaru dam area when the Nordic truce monitor was at the dam site on Sunday, by saying that he had not obtained clearance prior to visiting the site.
The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (headed by Maj Gen Ulf Henricsson) had entered the dam site “unannounced” without getting the mandatory clearance of the Government’s Peace Secretariat, the secretariat said in a statement.
There were certain procedures which had to be followed in the interest of the safety of the monitors, the peace secretariat said.
It further said that the armed forces were continuing “Operation Watershed” to get rid of the LTTE from the Mavil Aaru area and let the government engineers in to open the dam, which the LTTE had closed on July 20.
The statement said that the engineers had to have unimpeded access to the dam to open the gates and manage the water supply.
The statement blamed the LTTE for Sunday’s shelling, saying that it was the LTTE which started it by shelling the Kallaru army camp near the Mavil Aaru dam. The army had returned the fire.
