Vehicle theft by LTTE irks facilitators - report

Norway’s decision not to hail a truce the Tigers declared before the SAARC summit this month seems to have fuelled a crisis that has for the first time soured ties between the Tigers and Oslo, the peace facilitator in Sri Lanka.

Norway, seen by many in Sri Lanka as sympathetic to the Tigers, has been acutely embarrassed after the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) commandeered heavy vehicles belonging to the Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA), an Oslo-based NGO, in Kilinochchi district.

The NPA, which has worked in Tamil areas since a Norway-backed ceasefire was signed by the LTTE and Colombo in 2002, has been accused of not reporting the theft to the Defence Ministry.

The NPA says it discovered July 24 that the vehicles had been taken away from a compound in Kilinochchi ‘in the preceding days’ and that it reported the matter to the Nation Building and Infrastructure Development Ministry.

The vehicles were being used to clear mines in the North as part of a programme that has been suspended since January. The ministry oversees the mine-clearing project.

Colombo says the LTTE will use the vehicles now for its war efforts. The military, which is trying to capture the entire North, has vowed to destroy the vehicles.

According to sources who spoke to IANS on the condition of anonymity, the NPA and Norway have both complained to the LTTE. But there is no sign the Tigers plan to return the vehicles, which include two Ashok Leyland trucks, a Tata pick-up vehicle, a Tata 407 mini truck and a Tata water tanker. IANS