Colombo, Mar 01: European cease-fire monitors in Sri Lanka rejected today a request from Tamil Tiger rebels for the release of six of their fighters in exchange for freeing a government soldier and a policeman, a spokesman for the monitors said. "The two cases are different and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam are trying to confuse matters," said Hagrup Haukland, deputy head of the monitoring mission, but refused to elaborate any further.
The mission conveyed its decision today to the rebels, Haukland said. Last year, the Sri Lankan Government signed a cease-fire agreement with the Tamil Tigers, who had been fighting for a separate homeland for the country's minority ethnic Tamils.
The conflict has killed 65,000 people and displaced another 1.6 million. Monitors had asked the rebels to release a soldier detained in rebel territory on Dec. 24, and a policeman taken into rebel custody on Feb. 20, after the monitors prevented a confrontation between naval officers and rebels last Sunday in the eastern port city of Trincomalee.
Sri Lanka's navy tried to arrest seven rebels, saying they entered a government-controlled area with weapons. The monitors defused the situation, and the rebels were allowed to go free. Under the Norwegian-brokered truce, government soldiers and rebel fighters bearing arms are banned from entering each other's territories.
Bureau Report