Norway seeks to defuse SL truce monitor crisis

Colombo, June 21: Norwegian envoys today visited Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers in a bid to defuse a standoff over the island's Nordic truce monitors, while the rebels and military traded fresh accusations of violence.

Norwegian Ambassador Hans Brattskar flew to the northern rebel stronghold of Kilinochchi after the Tigers recommitted themselves to a 2002 ceasefire but insisted that the bulk of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission's staff be replaced in light of an EU terror ban against the rebels.

If monitors from Sweden, Denmark and Finland pull out, the unarmed SLMM will be left with just 20 staff from Norway and Iceland not enough to properly monitor the truce, which analysts say would leave a dangerous vacuum at a time when attacks and ambushes are soaring.

''The Tigers are still objecting to EU members within the SLMM, and Norway is trying to change their minds and also see how the SLMM could function properly if nationals from these three countries have to leave,'' a diplomatic source told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) yesterday vowed to ensure the safety of Nordic truce monitors, but many fear escalating violence in particular a Tiger feud with a renegade commander called Karuna could spiral into renewed civil war.

Sri Lanka's military said eight Tamil Tigers were killed in an overnight clash with a band of breakaway former comrades, but the rebels denied this today and accused the army of shelling their territory.

''There was an incident between the Karuna faction and the LTTE in Trincomalee just after midnight. There was some firing going on from both sides,'' said a senior military source, asking not to be identified.

''Ground and technical sources revealed eight Tiger cadres had been killed,'' he added. ''Government forces were not involved.'' The Tigers warned yesterday that attacks by the Karuna group, which they accuse of colluding with the military, pose ''a big threat to the ceasefire and peace process'' amid a rash of violence that has killed more than 700 people so far this year.

''Our forward defence lines were shelled in Trincomalee,'' Puratchi, head of the Tiger student union there, told Reuters by telephone. ''But no-one was killed or injured.'' ''We don't think Karuna was involved. It was military forces,'' he added.

The Tigers have also warned they would resort to any strategy including suicide bombers if a conflict that has killed more than 65,000 people resumes all-out, and that the effects would be felt throughout the island.

Reuters

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