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| Sunday, 22 December 2002 |
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Ceasefire violations : Complaints trickle to a few by A.K.M. Pillai The steady progress of peace talks between the Government and the LTTE towards a negotiated political settlement is being reflected in the number of ceasefire violations by the LTTE and the Armed Forces, which, last month recorded the lowest number of incidents. According to the media spokesman of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) Teitur Torkelsson, 146 complaints, 113 of which were against the LTTE and 33 against the Armed Forces, had been made in November. This is a significant reduction in the number of incidents which averaged over 400 per month during the initial stages of the ceasefire agreement. Teitur Torkelsson expressing satisfaction at the drop in the number of complaints made against both sides said the importance of the on -going peace process was felt very much in the north and the east. Torkelsson commenting on the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by the UNF Government and the LTTE which completes 303 days tomorrow, December 23, said "Compared to the complaints made at the early stages of the implementation of the MoU, the situation in the North and the East has improved to a greater extent with the LTTE and the armed forces sharing greater understanding with each other. " Detailing the nature of the recent complaints made against the LTTE, Torkelsson said that 38 of them were against the recruitment of children to the organisation and the other complaints were mainly on various forceful actions. Commenting on the 33 complaints made against the Armed Forces in November, he said that investigations were conducted and it was found that those complaints could not be considered as violations. The SLMM spokesman added that a detailed report on the implementation of ceasefire since February to December 2002 would be released soon. |
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