Norway trying to revive peace monitoring in Sri Lanka

Jon Hannsen-Bauer will try to persuade Tamil guerrillas to drop demands for the withdrawal of EU officials who are part of a five-nation Nordic truce monitoring mission overseeing a shaky cease-fire between the rebels and the government, said Erik Ivo Nurnberg, spokesman for the Norwegian Embassy in Sri Lanka.

Photo: Norway trying to revive peace monitoring in Sri Lanka

Norway trying to revive peace monitoring in Sri Lanka

In May, the EU listed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or LTTE, as a terrorist group. As a result, the rebels say that peace monitors from Finland, Sweden and Denmark can no longer be neutral.

Monitors from Norway and Iceland are also part of the mission but neither country belongs to the EU.

Sri Lanka's government has opposed the rebels' demand for the withdrawal of the monitors from the EU, saying that under the 2002 cease-fire agreement neither side has the right to make unilateral decisions on the monitors.

Last week, Swedish diplomat Anders Oljelund met the rebels political wing leader S.P. Thamilselvan and asked that the Tigers reconsider their decision, but to no avail.

The rebels' demand comes amid surging violence between government troops and the Tigers, threatening to destroy the cease-fire and return the island to full-scale civil war.

Also on Wednesday, Tamil Tigers fired at an army patrol, killing one government soldier and wounding another near the northern defense line in Vavuniya district, a Defense Ministry official said on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media, the AP reports.

Vavuniya, 210 kilometers (130 miles) north of Colombo, is a government- held garrison town.