=The Defence Ministry has directed the Scandinavian monitors to further inquire into reports about the Tamil guerrilla military build-up around the strategic northeastern port city of Trincomalee amid fresh evidence about existing guerrilla camps around the area, local newspapers said yesterday.
Defence Secretary Cyril Herat has confirmed that he had conveyed to the head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) Trond Furuhovde about the fresh evidence available about the guerrilla build up and called for an inquiry.
"We provided additional information to the SLMM to further inquire into the matter since we feel that the report submitted by the SLMM was lacking some information," Herat told the state run Daily News.
He said the Defence Ministry has information from the intelligence reports and also from other sources about the existence LTTE camps in the areas around the harbour.
"We do not agree with the SLMM that there are no LTTE camps around the Trincomalee harbour," Herat said referring to a previous report handed over by the Scandinavian monitors earlier to the Government Peace Secretariat.
The report was submitted by the monitors after the Defence Ministry lodged a complaint with them regarding the build-up around the harbour and the monitors made their own investigations. The monitors have visited the places where the alleged LTTE installations were reported to have been located.
