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| Sunday, 24 February 2002 |
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Will have diplomatic status: Ceasefire monitors arrive today by S. Selvakumar Members of an International Monitoring Mission to monitor the Ceasefire Agreement between the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) will arrive in Colombo today (Sunday), diplomatic sources told the "Sunday Observer". It will be known as the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM). The mission comprising eminent citizens of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland will be headed by a Norwegian. The Sri Lanka government will accredit them with diplomatic status, sources said. The head of the mission, after assembling his team in Colombo, will decide on the date for the commencement of its operations. SLMM's first two offices will be set up in Colombo and Vanni and thereafter in Jaffna, Mannar, Vavuniya, Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Ampara. After setting up its offices, a committee of five members each will be formed in each of those districts and the head of each committee will be a member of the international mission. The rest will be two nominees from the Government and another two from the LTTE. Prior to being deployed along the frontlines, the committees will discuss issues pertaining to the implementation of the Agreement and formulate procedures to resolve any dispute between the two parties that signed the agreement. While hectic activity is expected on the peace front in the coming weeks, the Tamil National Alliance has expressed optimism that beginning with the permanent ceasefire, a permanent peace, too, will be established. A TNA source expressed confidence in Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's commitment to peace and the Norwegian facilitation. "The country has undergone immense hardships during the last two decades and, after the Government and the LTTE signed the agreement to cease all hostilities, all peace loving citizens of this country are jubilant," the sources said. |
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