Tigers want EU out of SL monitors- Norway

Oslo, June 9: Sri Lankan rebel Tamil Tigers want European Union members withdrawn from a five-nation truce monitoring mission, mediator Norway said today.

The EU last month listed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as a banned terrorist organisation after an upsurge in violence on the Indian Ocean island.

''The LTTE has informed us that individual members of the EU cannot be members of the Nordic monitoring mission,'' Erik Solheim, Norway's minister for international development who brokered a 2002 truce, told a news conference.

The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) is an unarmed 60-person mission, made up of staff from EU members Sweden, Denmark and Finland and non-EU states Norway and Iceland.

Solheim urged the LTTE to reconsider their demand, saying it would leave only 20 monitors from Iceland and Norway.

''Norway cannot fill the vacancies,'' he said.

The remarks came after Tamil Tiger representatives refused to meet Sri Lankan government officials at talks in Oslo, though Norwegian officials met separately with both sides.

Reuters

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