Maj.Gen.Furuhovde assumes duties as Head of SLMM

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 January 2004, 12:29 GMT]
Major General Trond Furuhovde, Head of Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), will arrive in Colombo Saturday 31st January 2004. He will assume command of SLMM from Sunday 1st February 2004, a press release issued by the SLMM Head Quarters in Colombo, Friday said.

Maj. Gen. Furuhovde was the first Head of SLMM, serving from 2nd March 2002 to 6th March 2003.

Government of Norway reappointed Maj.Gen.(retd) Furuhovde after the controversy in November 2004 involving Major General (ret.) Tryggve Tellefsen. He was declared persona non grata by the Sri Lankan President, Mr.Tellefsen (62), was forced to work from Oslo Norway with remaining members of SLMM in Sri Lanka, using telephone and e-mail for the last few months.

Norwegian daily Aftenposten in its 13 December issue said that Mr. Tellefsen, who had 41 years of military experience and had previously worked with peace keeping missions in Sinai and Macedonia, felt he was a victimised by Ms.Kumaratunge who wanted to exercise greater influence in the peace process.