Local monitoring committee meeting at SCOPP

COLOMBO: The Peace Secretariat had its usual quarterly meetings with its Local Monitors from the six districts of Ampara, Batticaloa, Jaffna, Mannar, Trincomalee and Vavuniya in the middle of July.

A feature of this meeting was the presence by invitation of Anne Sender, Operations Manager of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, Ms Sender has been appointed to liaise with SCOPP, and welcome the opportunity to interact with the Local Monitors and discuss their problems.

According to the CeaseFire Agreement, each district should have a Local Monitoring Committee consisting of two Government members and two members from the LTTE as well, chaired by the SLMM International Monitor.

The LMC meetings are supposed to be held every month, so as to prepare a detailed report on all CFA violations in the respective districts. However, following the withdrawal of SLMM International Monitors from most districts, these meetings were not held.

In some districts there has been no interaction with the GOSL Local Monitors since August 2006, which has hindered the fulfilment of their duties.

These problems arose because the SLMM had to suffer grave reductions in staffing following the refusal of the LTTE to accept EU monitors. This has also led to an increase in ceasefire violations.

The recent meeting was very fruitful as the monitors brought up in detail various problems faced in their respective districts, and stated that the adverse situation was mainly due to the non-availability of the SLMM International Monitors in their districts.

Though in theory the SLMM offices remained open with local staff, there had been little interaction, and in some cases the GOSL monitors had been denied information. Ms Sender mentioned that this was not acceptable and it would not occur in future.

Local staff would be reminded that GOSL monitors were an essential part of the process. In any case the situation was likely to improve since SLMM had received more international monitors and was planning to hold regular meetings.