Colombo, July 15: Tamil Tiger rebels today honoured 12 comrades who died in a clash with the Sri Lankan navy last month, while cease-fire monitors met rebel leaders on how to avert such confrontations at sea, a news report and officials said. Meanwhile, the monitors complained that rebels have denied them access to some areas in contravention of the truce agreement.
The June 14 incident, in which a rebel ship sank, threw a shadow over the troubled peace process between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
Tamilnet web site, which reports on Tamil affairs, said that the rebels had declared today a day of mourning in the country's northeast, where most of Sri Lanka's 3.2 million Tamils live.
The rebels accuse the navy of attacking and sinking the ship, which they say was carrying oil supplies.
However, Sri Lanka's military claims the ship was loaded with smuggled weapons and that it sank when rebels blew themselves up rather than be boarded.
A Norwegian-led cease-fire monitoring mission has absolved the Sri Lanka navy of wrongdoing in the June sea incident, saying the navy has the authority to perform its legitimate tasks at sea.
Meanwhile, head of the monitors Tryggve Tellefsen and the rebels' political wing leader S P Thamilselvan met in the rebel-held town of Kilinochchi today.
"We will try to obtain some feedback and commitment about proposals to avert incidents at sea," Hagrup Haukland, the Norwegian deputy head of the monitoring team, said about the meeting.
Bureau Report