Sri Lankan rebels press for replacement of truce monitors

Sri Lanka's rebel organization Tamil Tiger has called for the replacement of international truce monitors from European Union nations in the Nordic truce monitoring team in the island, the rebel sources said Wednesday.

S.P. Thamilselvan, the political head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), was quoted by its official website as saying that he had expressed its request to Norwegian Ambassador Hans Brattskar who was visiting the rebel-held Kilinochchi.

After the decision by the European Union late last month to proscribe the LTTE as a terrorist organization, the LTTE wants truce monitors represented in the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission ( SLMM) from Sweden, Denmark and Finland replaced.

Thamilselvan told Brattskar that the rebels feel strongly about the neutrality of the SLMM given the inclusion of members from the three nations after the EU decision to ban the Tigers.

Thirty seven out of the 57 monitors in the SLMM are from Sweden, Denmark and Finland. The Norwegians said it takes a period of six months to replace the monitors from the three EU nations.

Brattskar visited Kilinochchi on Wednesday seeking a response by the LTTE to five questions posed by the Norwegian peace facilitators on the future of their role in Sri Lanka's separatist armed conflict.

Thamilselvan said the LTTE has sent its responses through the LTTE Peace Secretariat.

"We have said that it is difficult to wait for the long period asked by Norway to find replacements for the SLMM monitors from EU countries," said Thamilselvan.

He also accused the Sri Lankan government of carrying out attacks against the rebels in stepping up violence.

In its questions to the government and the LTTE, Norway probed from both sides their commitment to the peace process and the ceasefire in the light of ongoing upsurge in violence.

The government said last week that it has no problem with these five questions as it has already supported these factors regarding the SLMM.

Over 800 lives have been lost so far in the north and east since December last year.

The SLMM has been monitoring the truce since February 2002 and has accused both sides of resorting to violence.

The Tiger rebels snubbed a meeting convened in Oslo on June 8-9 to discuss issues concerning the SLMM's operation.

Source: Xinhua