Military and LTTE in ‘subversive war’ – Oslo envoy

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 October 2005, 14:56 GMT]
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 taking place in Sri Lanka’s restive east and occasionally in the Sri Lankan capitol, Colombo, has spread to almost other parts of the Northeast.