SLMM head leaves for Oslo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 October 2003, 18:58 GMT]
Major General (Retd.) Triggve Teleffsen, head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), left Wednesday for Oslo to brief Norwegian foreign minister about the functioning of the SLMM in Sri Lanka, media sources in Colombo said.

The Norwegian foreign ministry has called Major General Teleffsen to Oslo to confer with him on certain allegations made by Sri Lanka's President, Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunga.

Ms. Kumaratunga wrote to the Norwegian Prime Minister, Mr.Kjell Magne Bondevik, alleging that the SLMM head had leaked information to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) regarding a weapon ship spotted by the Sri Lanka Navy recently in the Mullaithivu seas, and asked him to remove Maj. Gen. Teleffsen from the post of SLMM head immediately.

Meanwhile, the Presidential Secretariat in a press release said that President Kumaratunga was in receipt of a report from the Commander of Sri Lanka Navy regarding the “improper conduct of Major General Teleffsen, which could potentially have jeopardized the lives of Navy personnel and compromised the national security of Sri Lanka,” media sources said.

However, sources quoted the SLMM’s acting head as saying the monitoring activities of the SLMM are continuing without any hindrance.

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