Sri Lankan rebels say still committed to peace

JEVNAKER, Norway (Reuters) – Sri Lankan rebel Tamil Tigers
said on Friday they had reassured mediator Norway that they
stood by their commitment to a cease-fire and peace process in
their conflict with the Colombo government.

They made the comments after refusing on Thursday to meet a
Sri Lankan government delegation in the Nordic state. Norway
then asked both sides to say if they backed the 2002 truce.

“Our commitment to the peace process and the cease-fire
agreement is full and continuing with the sincerity we have
shown since the beginning,” Tamil Tiger political wing leader
S.P. Thamilselvan told a news conference in southeast Norway.

He said the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were
firm in their decision that the European Union members of a
five-nation cease-fire monitoring mission should leave the
Indian Ocean island immediately.

But the LTTE political leadership would grant Norway the
time it requested for a final withdrawal of the EU monitors.

The LTTE had said on Thursday that EU members Sweden,
Denmark and Finland should leave the 57-strong Sri Lanka
Monitoring Mission (SLMM). That would leave non-EU states
Norway and Iceland, who have only 20 monitors in Sri Lanka.

Thamilselvan said the LTTE would consider the possibility
of including other countries in the SLMM if necessary. He said
such nations would have to honor the position of the LTTE as an
equal party in the peace process.

Norwegian International Development Minister Erik Solheim
had laid the blame for the failure to hold the Thursday
meetings on the Tigers. Thamilselvan said the LTTE still had
full confidence in Norway as a facilitator.