Concerns raised over SLMM official's comments

BATTICALOA: The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) Batticaloa district chief Arthur Tveiten has come under heavy criticism owing to his prejudicial comments against the Security Forces.

Tveiten's behaviour caused much controversy last week when the United Nations Special Representative on Children and Armed Conflict Allan Rock charged that Security Forces were aiding the Karuna faction to recruit child soldiers.

It is believed that Tveiten who accompanied Rock during the latter's visit to the East, manipulated evidence and distorted the ground situation in the area, thus leading the UN Representative into concluding that the Forces had a hand in child conscription.

In fact, the Security Forces in the East have, even before Rock's statement, raised concerns about the prejudicial behaviour of Tveiten in his monitoring activities.

According to senior Security personnel in the area, this included his repeated rejection of Security Forces complaints regarding the LTTE's ceasefire violations citing lack of evidence and his unusual enthusiasm in acting upon complaints against the Security Forces.

A recent incident which demonstrated Tveiten's coloured views on the Security Forces was when he charged that the Army had supported the Karuna faction to abduct five children working at a road reconstruction project in Chankaladi.

According to reports, Tveiten who visited the TMVP (Karuna's political party) office in Chenkalady on a complaint lodged by one of the parents, had called General Officer Command, 23rd division Brigadier Daya Ratnayake and charged that the Karuna faction has abducted the children with the support of the Army, despite the absence of any evidence.