Tamil Tigers say truce still intact

SRI LANKA: Sri Lankan rebel Tamil Tigers said yesterday they had reassured mediator Norway that they stood by their commitment…

SRI LANKA: Sri Lankan rebel Tamil Tigers said yesterday they had reassured mediator Norway that they stood by their commitment to a ceasefire 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 ceasefire agreement is full and continuing with the sincerity we have shown since the beginning," Tamil Tiger political wing leader SP Thamilselvan told reporters in Norway.

He said the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were firm that the EU members of a five-nation ceasefire monitoring mission should leave the Indian Ocean island immediately.

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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, which have only 20 monitors in Sri Lanka. - (Reuters)