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SRI LANKA MONITORING MISSION THREATENS TO RE-WRITE THE CEASEFIRE AGREEMENT AS LTTE DRAGS ITS FEET TO RELEASE PRISONERS

By Walter Jayawardhana reporting from Los Angeles

The Norway backed Sri Lanka Monitoring mission in a rare reprimand against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam told the rebel leadership that if their group was not prepared to release the Sri Lanka Army soldier and the Sri Lanka policeman in their custody as promised immediately the ceasefire agreement between the LTTE and the Sri Lanka government would be compelled to be re-written.

The deputy head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), Hagrup Haukland in a tough dispatch to the Tiger leadership, said that he was utterly disappointed when he heard S.Pulidevan of the LTTE Peace Secretariat announced that the LTTE could not release the Sinhalese soldier and the police constable according to their whims and fancies.

Pulidevan reportedly informed the SLMM before Thursday that the two would be released immediately. But a night after he changed his mind and reportedly told the SLMM that they could not be released until the Police Constable and the soldier were produced on March 4 and March 7 respectively and only if the "judges" decided to release them.

The two were scheduled to be produced in the illegally constituted LTTE courts on the above days in the LTTE headquarters at Kilinochchi. The kangaroo courts are not independent and found to be mere mouthpieces of the LTTE supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran.

The SLMM reminded the LTTE that the seven Tiger rebels involved with a tense standoff with Sri Lanka naval troops were released specifically with the condition that the two in the LTTE custody would be released. But after the release of the rebels who were cornered at Kuchchaveli the LTTE leaders changed their word and were dragging their feet about the release of the Sri Lankan prisoners.

The LTTE rebels cornered had entered in to the Sri Lanka controlled area fully armed searching pilgrims while the two Sinhalese in their custody were arrested only for unintentionally straying out to the LTTE controlled areas. In fact the police constable in custody dozed off in a bus that passed the demarcating line imposed by the ceasefire agreement.

The Sri Lanka Navy released ,the LTTE armed rebels on the instructions of the Defense Secretary Austin Fernando. The rebels were in a severe violation of the ceasefire agreement by entering the area armed. When asked by a reporter why did the Sri Lanka government release the seven armed rebels in a hurry when the LTTE was dragging its feet Fernando replied that was the difference between a government and a rebel group. He said the government released the rebels trusting the SLMM. It was the responsibility of the monitors to get the soldier and the constable released. He said the government was bound to follow a ruling of the SLMM.

Hagrup Haukland said if the two persons were not released immediately the SLMM would decide that the LTTE has rejected the authority of the Monitoring Mission. He said that was a serious violation of the ceasefire agreement. "If the Sri Lanka government, for instance, took a similar step next time by rejecting the authority of the SLMM there would be a regrettable and sad situation created," he warned the LTTE.

He said that the breaking of the promise to release the prisoners was a deathblow aimed at the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. That was a position that cannot be accepted under any kind of circumstances, he charged.

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