Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger rebels said the future of ceasefire monitors from Denmark, Finland and Sweden is still in the balance.
COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger rebels on Tuesday reaffirmed their commitment to a truce despite surging violence, but said the future of ceasefire monitors from Denmark, Finland and Sweden is still in the balance. The rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said they would discuss the issue of ceasefire observers from European Union member states at a meeting on Wednesday with peace broker Norway.
The EU outlawed the Tigers last month in a move that cut off funding and was apparently aimed in part at forcing the rebels back the negotiating table they left in April 2003.
“This is a matter that will be discussed tomorrow with the (Norwegian) facilitator,” LTTE’s peace secretariat chief said S Puleedevan when contacted via satellite phone at the rebels’ political headquarters of Kilinochchi. “We don’t want to say anything right now.”
The LTTE in talks with Norwegian envoys earlier this month said they did not want nationals from Finland, Sweden and Denmark in the 60-member Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission (SLMM). Norway and Iceland, two non-European Union member states, also provide monitors to the SLMM to observe a shaky ceasefire that has been in place since February 2002 but is under pressure following an upsurge of violence. Puleedevan said they have told Norway in writing that they support the ceasefire and want to continue with the peace process aimed at ending three decades of ethnic bloodshed that has claimed over 60,000 lives.
The Tigers wrote to Norway following a letter from top Norwegian envoy Erik Solheim asking both Colombo and the LTTE to reaffirm their commitment to peace after failing to secure a face-to-face meeting between the two sides. The government has already responded, saying it was committed to the ceasefire. A surge of violence has seen at least 815 people killed since December in the north and the east of the island.
On Tuesday, the government and the Tigers were locked in a fresh war of words over attacks against civilian targets in recent weeks.
The government accused the LTTE of attacking a historic Buddhist temple in the island’s east but the guerrillas said they had nothing to do with it and in turn blamed the military.
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