The LTTE continued to hold seven soldiers seized by them on Wednesday afternoon near Wilgamwehera detachment in the Trincomalee district security sources said yesterday.

"The LTTE holds them despite an undertaking given to the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) that the soldiers would be released. The SLMM waited all day Friday for a message from the LTTE disclosing the rendezvous point, but there was no contact, the sources said.

Spokesperson for the SLMM Teitur Torkelsson said that the LTTE gave an undertaking to the SLMM that they would make contact before noon Friday to disclose where the soldiers would be released, but failed to do so.

"We are hopeful that they will release them tomorrow at least (Saturday morning)," he said on Friday. However, the military yesterday eveing said that there was no change in the situation.

The LTTE proposed a prisoner swap requesting the release of two LTTE men arrested by Trincomalee police in exchange for the seven soldiers. "But SLMM representatives told the LTTE that they were now under the authority of the judiciary, and we cannot interfere with the judiciary," Torkelsson said. The two LTTE men in police custody were arrested for carrying weapons in government-controlled area.

Friday’s failed release bid was the second time the LTTE failed to keep its end of the bargain in this particular incident. The army reported that the LTTE promised the release of the soldiers the same day they were detained, that is Wednesday. They informed the army detachment at Welgamvehera to which the soldiers belong that the captives would be released that evening.

The SLMM intervened in the matter after the army lodged a complaint. The army reported that on Thursday an army officer waited at the meeting place indicated by the LTTE—500 meters north of the place where the soldiers were taken by the LTTE—with an SLMM representative from the Trincomalee district.

They arrived at the specified time of 5:30 pm but even at 6:30 p.m. the LTTE failed make an appearance, at which point the army officer and the SLMM member returned to base.

Following this SLMM gave an undertaking to negotiate the release within yesterday, but here too the LTTE failed to make contact despite giving an undertaking that it would inform the place and time of release.

Meanwhile the security forces maintain that the detention of the soldiers is an act of abduction as the area in which they were collecting sand is not one under LTTE-control, while the LTTE claims that the area is under their control. SLMM sources held out that this is disputed area.