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More ceasefire monitors from today

by Rajmi Manatunga

The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) will deploy more monitors in the North and East from today, a spokesman for the SLMM told Daily News yesterday.

This expansion of the SLMM has been made possible after 12 more monitors from Norway, Finland and other Scandinavian countries joined the present 22 monitors.

"We will deploy two monitors in Jaffna and one each in Mannar, Vavuniya, Trincomalee, Batticaloa and several other places. The SLMM has also decided to cover the sea areas and accordingly deploy monitors in Navy, LTTE and SLMM vessels. These monitors will be on 24 hour service", the spokesman added.

The SLMM said that the crew available in Sri Lanka is insufficient to cover all respective areas. They are awaiting 10 more monitors to Sri Lanka.

The SLMM has received 196 complaints and allegations so far. Only 58 of them have been recorded as truce violations. The largest number of complaints have been reported from Batticaloa (38) and 10 of them are abductions. Among other violations is the blocking of the distribution of a weekly newspaper in the Eastern region. The monitors said that none of the ceasefire violations jeopardised the agreement.

Questioned on the free sea passage between the Vanni and the East that the LTTE has requested, he said the issue was still under discussion.

Meanwhile, the Navy said that they have not yet been informed of deploying SLMM monitors in Navy Vessels. "At present there are four monitors deployed in Navy vessels in Trincomalee with one each for the North and East", the Navy spokesman said. 

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