LTTE demand is unreasonable, says Sri Lanka

Colombo, Jun 22: The Lankan government today described LTTE'S demand to remove members of the European Union from the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) as ''totally unreasonable'', saying it was happy with the service of all the members of the truce mission.

''Their demands are totally reasonable. It clearly shows the mindset of the LTTE working in those areas. They are putting pressure on the SLMM because they have made a ruling against the LTTE on the sea issue,'' government spokesman and Media Minister Anurapriyadarshana Yapa told reporters here today.

He said the government was not informed officially about the LTTE demand to the Norwegian Ambassador, but we have no objection for inclusion of nationals from Denmark, Finland and Sweden.

''The inclusion of any nationals is not our problem. We believe they are not representing countries. They are here for a purpose.

Once they are admitted to the SLMM they do a particular job. We have not objected to anyone,'' Mr Yapa said.

He, however, said the government had made certain observation with regard to the conduct of the SLMM in the recent past, but that does not mean that we are asking them to go.

Meanwhile, government Peace Secretariat in a statement today welcomed the LTTE commitment to uphold the ceasefire agreement and the organisation's positive response to the clarifications sought by the Norwegian facilitators.

The government however, expressed concern over the LTTE insistence to remove the EU members from the SLMM within one month.

''While we welcome this development and encourage the LTTE to make a formal commitment to return to the negotiations, we are concerned that the LTTE has informed the Norwegian facilitator that the change in the composition of the SLMM aimed at excluding EU members ( i.e. Sweden, Denmark and Finland) should be effected within one month, instead of the 6 months transitional period suggested by Norway,'' the statement said.

''In order to ensure the effective monitoring of the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) as well as to advance the peace process, it is highly impractical to expect that these changes could be effected within a one month period as demanded by the LTTE. We hope that the LTTE would reconsider its position and agree to Norway's more practical and reasonable suggestion,'' the secretariat statement added.

Yesterday, the LTTE urged the Norwegian facilitators to remove soon the members of Denmark, Finland and Sweden from the SLMM, questioning their neutrality following the EU ban on the rebel outfit last month.

LTTE's political wing head, S P Thamilselvan made this request during a meeting yesterday with Norwegian Ambassador for Sri Lanka, Mr Hans Brattskar in the rebel-held Kilinochchi.

The SLMM currently consists 57 members from the five Nordic countries-- Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and Iceland and according to the CFA, the government and the LTTE must be in agreement through a mutually accepted process before any amendments to the CFA can be made. So far no amendments have been made to the CFA.

Of the 57, 37 members, including the head of mission, are from the three members of the EU.

UNI

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