OMANTHE, Sept 28: The Sri Lankan government and the LTTE on Friday made history by their first face-to-face exchange of prisoners of war, a ceremony originally scheduled to have taken place three weeks ago at the border of the territory controlled by the LTTE in the north-east.

In all, thirteen hard-core members of the LTTE detained at the Welikada prison in the south were released, two of them in Colombo, while eleven were handed over to the LTTE hierarchy in Omanthe at a ceremony jointly organised by the government and the LTTE.

The ceremony marking the exchange of prisoners was attended by a large number of officials from both sides, including the government, military, Air Force and Navy officials.

They were there specially to welcome the seven military personnel, including Ajith Boyagoda, the military commander of one of Sri Lanka’s biggest warships and the highest-ranking officer to be taken prisoner. He was captured by the LTTE on September 20,

1994.

The other six military personnel released by the LTTE were soldiers captured by the LTTE in November, 1993, when over six hundred LTTE men stormed the Nagathevanthurai region in Poonerin Jaffna, attacking an army camp.

ICRC media spokesperson Sukumar Rockwood said that his organization had consulted all the detainees in private to know where they wished to be released, which resulted in two of the LTTE members being set free in Colombo.

The Secretary to the Ministry of Defence, Austin Fernando, in a brief statement on the occasion requested the former rebels to give a formal statement to the government as to whether they held more military personnel captive.

“Rightly or wrongly it is believed that the LTTE holds more numbers of military personnel captive. We, therefore, request the LTTE hierarchy to make a public statement in this regard,” Fernando said.