Sri Lanka’s military and the Liberation Tigers are locked in a ‘subversive war,’ visiting Norwegian envoy Major Gen. (retd) Trond Furuhovde said Friday, calling on both sides to exercise restraint.
“This is subversive war [and] both parties are involved in this,” Reuters quoted Maj. Gen. Furuhovde, the former head of the international truce monitors in Sri Lanka, as telling the Foreign Correspondents’ Association.
“The parties, as they are involved in a subversive warfare, have to show self-discipline. We believe that peace talks is an alternative which is very useful,” Furuhovde said.
“If they use force, they have to be sure whether it is necessary to use force and the kind of consequences it could bear,” he added.
“It is alarming. All war is alarming. This is dangerous for the ceasefire and for the country. … There is no military solution to this conflict, that’s for sure.”
“We have seen similar warfare going on Iraq, the transformation of war into something else,” Furuhovde added. “What we see now, it’s not only criminal acts, it’s also acts of war.”
Scores of LTTE members, Army intelligence officers, paramilitary cadres and civilians have died in a cycle of violence which escalated last year in the wake of the defection to the Army of a renegade LTTE commander, Karuna.
The LTTE says Sri Lankan military intelligence is deploying five paramilitary groups in a concerted campaign of violence against its members and supporters in the eastern province.
The violence, once predominantly occuring in Sri Lanka’s restive east and occasionally in the capitol, Colombo, has spread to almost other parts of the Northeast.
Last week, several people, including the principles of two of Jaffna’s well known schools as well as security forces personnel, suspected paramilitaries and LTTE members were killed in the northern Jaffna peninsula.
The LTTE last week called on international monitors to adopt a proactive role by intervening in matters that pose serious challenges to their mandate.
In a letter to Mr. Hagrup Haukland, head of Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), the LTTE’s Political Head, Mr. S. P. Tamilselvan called for “effective steps be taken to drive home the reality that the SLA does in fact violate the spirit and letter of the CFA and the government adopts a condoning attitude and that this cannot continue unchecked.”
Accusing the Colombo government and the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) of operating with a “political agenda” to disrupt the Cease Fire Agreement and the peace process at large, Mr. Tamilselvan referred to the recent ambush on an LTTE convoy in Vavunativu.
“What stands out clearly in this episode and many others before, is the political agenda with which Colombo is manipulating matters to disrupt the CFA and the peace process at large, however much we as the other party strive hard and committedly to safeguard the integrity of the CFA,” Mr. Tamilselvan wrote.
The SLMM this week called for dialogue between military commanders on both sides to resolve growing tensions. But Gen. Furuhovde said last Friday there had been no breakthrough in arranging early negotiations between the parties and “I cannot say if the talks can be held in the near future.”
Last week visiting international human rights advisor Ian Martin, who is tasked with drawing up a human rights roadmap for Sri Lanka, believes introducing an international body with powers to investigate the ongoing killings could be the answer.
“The political killings are one of the most serious human rights issues, but the key problem there is to identify properly where responsibility lies and that’s why I think an impartial mechanism could be of assistance,” Martin was quoted by Reuters as saying.
“I raised the question of whether some international investigative capacity, the neutrality of which might be accepted by both parties, might not be useful,” Martin, a former head of Amnesty International, added, referring to talks he held separately with the Tigers and the government.
“This is subversive war [and] both parties are involved in this,” Reuters quoted Maj. Gen. Furuhovde, the former head of the international truce monitors in Sri Lanka, as telling the Foreign Correspondents’ Association.
“The parties, as they are involved in a subversive warfare, have to show self-discipline. We believe that peace talks is an alternative which is very useful,” Furuhovde said.
“If they use force, they have to be sure whether it is necessary to use force and the kind of consequences it could bear,” he added.
“It is alarming. All war is alarming. This is dangerous for the ceasefire and for the country. … There is no military solution to this conflict, that’s for sure.”
“We have seen similar warfare going on Iraq, the transformation of war into something else,” Furuhovde added. “What we see now, it’s not only criminal acts, it’s also acts of war.”
Scores of LTTE members, Army intelligence officers, paramilitary cadres and civilians have died in a cycle of violence which escalated last year in the wake of the defection to the Army of a renegade LTTE commander, Karuna.
The LTTE says Sri Lankan military intelligence is deploying five paramilitary groups in a concerted campaign of violence against its members and supporters in the eastern province.
The violence, once predominantly occuring in Sri Lanka’s restive east and occasionally in the capitol, Colombo, has spread to almost other parts of the Northeast.
Last week, several people, including the principles of two of Jaffna’s well known schools as well as security forces personnel, suspected paramilitaries and LTTE members were killed in the northern Jaffna peninsula.
The LTTE last week called on international monitors to adopt a proactive role by intervening in matters that pose serious challenges to their mandate.
In a letter to Mr. Hagrup Haukland, head of Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), the LTTE’s Political Head, Mr. S. P. Tamilselvan called for “effective steps be taken to drive home the reality that the SLA does in fact violate the spirit and letter of the CFA and the government adopts a condoning attitude and that this cannot continue unchecked.”
Accusing the Colombo government and the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) of operating with a “political agenda” to disrupt the Cease Fire Agreement and the peace process at large, Mr. Tamilselvan referred to the recent ambush on an LTTE convoy in Vavunativu.
“What stands out clearly in this episode and many others before, is the political agenda with which Colombo is manipulating matters to disrupt the CFA and the peace process at large, however much we as the other party strive hard and committedly to safeguard the integrity of the CFA,” Mr. Tamilselvan wrote.
The SLMM this week called for dialogue between military commanders on both sides to resolve growing tensions. But Gen. Furuhovde said last Friday there had been no breakthrough in arranging early negotiations between the parties and “I cannot say if the talks can be held in the near future.”
Last week visiting international human rights advisor Ian Martin, who is tasked with drawing up a human rights roadmap for Sri Lanka, believes introducing an international body with powers to investigate the ongoing killings could be the answer.
“The political killings are one of the most serious human rights issues, but the key problem there is to identify properly where responsibility lies and that’s why I think an impartial mechanism could be of assistance,” Martin was quoted by Reuters as saying.
“I raised the question of whether some international investigative capacity, the neutrality of which might be accepted by both parties, might not be useful,” Martin, a former head of Amnesty International, added, referring to talks he held separately with the Tigers and the government.
