Sri Lanka agrees to remove EU truce monitors
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
New Delhi, June 23, IRNA
SLanka-LTTE-EU
In an effort to keep the threadbare peace process on track, Sri Lankan government caved in to a Tamil Tiger demand of removing the European truce monitors, who branded the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as terrorists, from the island nation but said it should be done in six months instead of one.
The government's peace secretariat in a statement, Thursday, said the Tigers' demand to remove monitors from three European Union member states which banned the Tigers as terrorists last month was unethical, but they agreed to go along, PTI reported here.
However, "We hope that the LTTE would reconsider its position and agree to Norway's more practical and reasonable suggestion (to replace them in six months)," it said.
The peace secretariat said the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam wanted the Danish, Finnish and Swedish monitors removed within a month.
"This is an unreasonable demand that ignores the service provided by the group of Scandinavian monitors to Sri Lanka's peace process and is oblivious to the realities of international relations.
"In order to ensure the effective monitoring of the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) as well as to advance the peace process, it is highly impractical to expect that these changes could be effected within a one-month period as demanded by the LTTE," it said.
Government spokesman and Media Minister Anura Yapa said it was "unreasonable" for the Tiger rebels to demand the removal of ceasefire monitors from three European Union member states - Denmark, Finland and Sweden.
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