<b>Security zones must go </b>

Shelani Perera - The Sunday Times

With the withdrawal of security forces from schools, places of worship and public buildings, a new problem has arisen over high-security zones around those places.

Tamil National Alliance sources said they would be meeting Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Tuesday to ask that normalcy be restored around the places vacated by the security forces by allowing people to move freely.

But military spokesman Sanath Karunaratne said that some of the places where the security forces had been withdrawn were within the high security zones as there were other security installations in the areas.

The TNA sources said checks by them had revealed that the forces had withdrawn from most places as specified in the ceasefire agreement and they were confident that it would be completed by the deadline on Friday.

The TNA held a series of meetings with the Defence Minister and Defence Secretary during the last week assessing the progress of the evacuation.

TNA parliamentarian S. Vinayagamurthy told The Sunday Times that the high security zone would be one of the issues to be taken up with the PM. "This is a serious matter. We wanted the troops to move away so that normalcy will return but the people cannot live in these places.

As for the withdrawal we are satisfied with the progress. Some of the main schools and places of worship have been vacated. There are a few places which we believe will be vacated by the deadline," he said.

Meanwhile a meeting between TNA MPs and LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran scheduled for yesterday has been postponed for Saturday. Reports said the LTTE leadership had been busy at a meeting with the SLMM over the weekend

- The Sunday Times -