Monitoring chief to visit as SLMC urges calm

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 June 2002, 01:34 GMT]
The head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) Major General Trond Furuhovde is scheduled to visit Trincomalee by next week urgently to sort out two major complaints - including an attack on the Liberation Tigers' office in Mutur allegedly by Muslim militants - and some other matters pertaining to the implementation of the ceasefire agreement, SLMM sources said. Sri Lanka's largest Muslim party, the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), said "sinister elements" were seeking to forment communal strife and urged calm.

LTTE's Political office that was attacked on Friday night. (Photo: TamilNet)

The SLMM office in Trincomalee has forwarded two key complaints it received last week to its headquarters in Colombo.

The first complaint had been by the displaced Tamil people of Thiriyai over the refusal by the Sri Lanka Navy to enter their own village for resettlement.

The second complaint has come from the Liberation Tigers regarding the attack on the LTTE's political office Friday night in Muttur town, which is controlled by the State armed forces, SLMM sources said.

The LTTE has complained to the SLMM in Trincomalee that the 'Osama' section of the Jihad group had attacked its Muttur political office.

The leader of the SLMC, Mr. Rauf Hakeem, who is also Sri Lanka's Ports Minister, "held extensive talks with defence authorities to discuss the issue on tension that has built up in the Trincomalee district following the demolition of the LTTE office in Mutur," state media reported Sunday.

"Minister Hakeem condemned the sinister elements which attempt to disturb the prevailing cordial atmosphere between the Muslims and Tamils in the East which came about consequent to the discussions between the LTTE and the SLMC leadership," the Sunday Observer reported, quoting the Defence Ministry.

"The SLMC requests all peace loving Muslims to exercise restraint and not to fall prey to these extremist groups whose agendas go against the principles of peaceful cohabitation," the state paper said.