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The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission - SLMM, was established on February 22, 2002 by the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam LTTE. SLMM consists of members from the five Nordic countries, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and Iceland. The SLMM mandate is to monitor the cease fire between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan government. Government The President of the Republic, directly elected for a 6-year term, is chief of state, head of government, and commander in chief of the armed forces. ...
LTTE is an acronym or initialism for: Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam Known for their guerilla warfare forcibly killing every other independent groups aiming for seperate state. ...
SLMM has its Headquarters in Colombo, and has six District Offices (DO)in the North and East: Mannar, Jaffna, Trincomalee, Batticaloa, Ampara and Vavuniya, as well as a Liaison Office in Killinochchi. There are also two naval monitoring teams, one in Jaffna and one in Trincomalee. In addition, SLMM has established Points of Contact (PoC) within the district offices. The PoCs expand the possibility to establish contact with the local population and for SLMM to be more accessible. For the American televison series see Columbo. ...
Jaffna is a town in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka. ...
Trincomalee is a port city on the northeast coast of Sri Lanka, about 110 miles northeast of Kandy. ...
The town of Batticaloa is the provincial capital of the eastern province of Sri Lanka. ...
Killinochchi is a small city in the north of Sri Lanka. ...
The SLMM DO’s operates mobile units and performs extensive patrolling in SLMM Area of Responsibility (AOR). Moreover the SLMM inquires into both parties' complaints regarding the cease fire. The six SLMM DOs define AOR geographically, while the Area of Operation (AOO) includes all of Sri Lanka.
The SLMM is currently staffed with about 60 monitors, and is headed by the Norwegian Brigadier Hagrup Haukland. The organisation has received critique from various sides of the conflict for not being impartial and for appeasing the parties.
Locally, SLMM is criticised for not taking any actions against Cease Fire violations by the LTTE. The SLMM's reaction on this fact (that the majority of violations is done by the LTTE) is that the parties has the responsibility for the CFA (Cease Fire Agreement). The SLMM's role is documenting CFA violations, assisting the parties in local mediation and supplying Norway and the co-chairs of the peace process with facts.
However the general opinion from the international community seems to be that the SLMM is of vital importance for keeping the fragile cease fire. As a monitoring mission the SLMM is not involved in the Norwegian government's facilitation of the peace talks.
Criticism
The leader of SLMM, known as "Head of Mission - HoM" is appointed by the Norwegian goverment. The Norwegian facilitators are by some accused of being biased towards the LTTE. The Norwegians have support by the present Sri Lankan opposition party (UNP) and the co-chairs (USA, EU and Japan). PA, the ruling party, was initially supportive of Norway's role. However, the ruling party raised many questions regarding credibility of Norway as an 'independent facilitator'. The Sri Lankan president once strongly complained to the Norwegian Prime Minister of Colombo's Norwegian Ambassador Jon Westbog. Former foreign minister Lakshman Kadirgamar was critical of the role played by the Norway, and demanded them to leave if Norway was unable to bring democracy to LTTE controlled areas. Anura Bandaranaike, a minister of the ruling party said Norway's role is highly questionable. [1] Despite this critique from some parts of the government, the President and the prime minister repeatedly have voiced their support of continued Norwegian and Nordic support for the ceasefire and the peace process. Lakshman Kadirgamar Kadirgamar on a diplomatic visit to France, January 1996. ...
The popular view among Sri Lankans is that 'Norwegians direct SLMM'. Norwegian Government (through the Norwegian Embassy in Colombo) sent a consignment of radio equipment to the LTTE in 2002, and majority of anti-LTTE Sri Lankans saw this as Norway siding with the LTTE. The shipment was however cleared with the government of Sri Lanka. Norwegian Ambassador John Westborg was accused to have committed breaches of the 'customs ordinance' of Sri Lanka and the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations by seeking clearance for goods for the embassy, which were actually meant for a third party (LTTE). [2] The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations is an international treaty on diplomatic intercourse and the privileges and immunities of a diplomatic mission. ...
The AsianTribune reports "India has warned Sri Lanka of the facilities LTTE possess to track down telephone conversation and locations, even telephone conversations by officials in the President Secretariat of Sri Lanka through a remote sensing radio transmitting devise which has been provided by Norway" [3]
A Chinese ship was attacked off northern Sri Lankan sea, on March 20, 2003 and it is widely believed this was carried out by the LTTE. At least twice, LTTE has previously attacked Chinese ships off Sri Lankan seas. [4] [5]
General Trond Furuhovde, a Norwegian and then Head of SLMM, indirectly suggested to the LTTE to put the blame on a “third party with stolen uniforms”. [6] No such “third parties” have previously carried out such attacks in Sri Lankan seas. SLMM later issued a statement blaming a “third party” without naming who that third party was.
On another occasion, the Sri Lankan navy was pursuing a suspected LTTE arms vessel, and a SLMM officer on board the Navy boat informed the SLMM HQ about the raid via a satellite phone. The SLMM HQ checked with the LTTE which allowed the LTTE arms vessle to escape. The Opposition party lodged the strongest protest and demanded government to declare the SLMM monitor in question as "Persona non grata" [7]. Persona non grata (plural personae non gratae), literally an unwelcome person, is a term generally reserved for diplomats. ...
University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna), Sri Lanka, accuses Norway's 'appeasing the LTTE' strategy responsible for the assassination of Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar [8] The Norwegian deputy foreign ministers comment on the calls for more pressure on the LTTE was that the cease fire agreement and the peace process is the parties responsibility. Though both sides want Norwegian and SLMM support in handling the other, the Norwegian view is that they need to work it out themselves. Lakshman Kadirgamar Kadirgamar on a diplomatic visit to France, January 1996. ...
SLMM has ruled that LTTE has violated the CFA 3006 times, as opposed to 133 times by the Government, as of 30/06/2005. [9]. Despite extremely high number of CFA violations committed by the LTTE, Norwegian government routinely issue statements urging "both parties" (meaning the LTTE and the Government) to observer the CFA.
These incidents are viewed by some in Sri Lanka as Norwegians conniving with the LTTE. Others however see it as the usual political infighting among the Sinhalese.
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