Army completes de-mining and rehabilitation of the shrine

The Bishop of Mannar Rt. Rev. Rayappu Joseph used the Madhu road for the first time to reach the shrine since April when the army evicted LTTE units in the area.

Army headquarters had invited the Bishop to take custody of the Madhu shrine.

On a directive given by Army Chief Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka, Maj. Gen. Jagath Jayasuriya, the senior officer based in Vavuniya had brought the Bishop to the church on Tuesday after troops had cleared one square kilometer, surrounding the church, of mines, booby traps and other unexploded explosive devices left behind by the retreating LTTE.

Madhu...

To facilitate the early handover of the church, Army headquarters had deployed engineer troops to repair the church at a cost of Rs.1.5 million allocated from the Army budget.

Subsequent to a meeting between the Bishop and Maj. Gen. Jayasuriya on July 21, ‘Our Lady of Madhu’ had been brought back to the Mannar Bishop’s House. During the battles in the Madhu area, the statue had been moved deep into the LTTE-held area.

The army has restored the water and electricity supplies and other sanitary facilities. The Bishop last night told The Island that people could be invited to Madhu only after both parties provided security guarantees. Fielding questions, he stressed that he needed unrestricted access to the area otherwise his Tuesday’s visit would be meaningless.

The Maj. Gen. has assured the Bishop that his troops would not enter the reserved area in uniforms carrying arms once the holy statue had been brought back.

Meanwhile, on the Vavuniya front, troops had regained an area south of Mallavi and east of Thunnukai where one of the most venerated Hindu kovils are situated. Brigadier Nanayakkara said the Sivam kovil area had been secured despite a range of obstacles. The LTTE had dug an eight-foot deep trench and filled it with water with a huge mound of sand and soil dug on one side of the terrain and a chain of false pits with thorny bushes had been found erected to deny access to the advancing troops, he said.

Meanwhile, in the Jaffna theatre, the LTTE fired ten rounds of artillery at troops deployed at Muhamalai on Tuesday morning. The army headquarters said two personnel had suffered injuries.

Army headquarters said troops engaged LTTE units at Navaykulam, Vilakkavettikulam, Kuttimulei, north of Navvi on Monday causing the death of at least nine LTTE cadres. Three soldiers had been wounded in mortar fire and an anti-personnel mine explosion.

On the Mannar front, 12 LTTE cadres had been killed and five wounded at Adampankulam and Illuppakadaveli also on Monday.

On the Welioya front, the army lost three soldiers while six received injuries in several exchanges on Monday.