Downward trend in ceasefire violations seen - SLMM

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 January 2003, 13:02 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Monitoring Commission (SLMM) in a press release issued today observed that the positive and ongoing development in the ceasefire during the last several months has been the decrease in the number of ceasefire violations. Most number of violations occurred in December was in Batticaloa(61) followed by Jaffna(46), Vavuniya(16), Ampara(7) and Trincomalee(1), the release said.

Full text of the press release follows:

Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission SLMM
PRESS RELEASE

SLMM HQ
Colombo

Date:22nd Jan. 2002

Ref: SLMM HQ/22nd Jan. 2003/MED/6018

Complaints and Violations of the Ceasefire Agreement in December 2002.

Decreasing amount of complaints and violations of the Ceasefire Agreement between the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has been the overall development in the Ceasefire during the last months. This is a positive and ongoing development. The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission is still receiving complaints about Child Recruitment of LTTE, and even though their number have clearly been going down the last months, SLMM would like to see an immediate end to this practice.

The total number of valid complaints received by Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, SLMM, in December was 142. 118 complaints were made against the LTTE and 24 against the Government forces. In December, nineteen cases were already ruled as violations of the LTTE and one case as a violation of the Government forces. The most common ruled violations of LTTE in December were ten cases of abduction of adults, six cases of Child Recruitment and two cases of Harassment. The one ruled violation of the Government forces in December was a case of Harassment.

The total number of ruled violations from the beginning of the Ceasefire agreement until 31st of December 2002 is 556. Thereof, LTTE is responsible for 502 violations and the Government forces for 54 violations. The most common violations of LTTE during the year of 2002 were 313 cases of Child Recruitment, 89 cases of Abductions of adults and 41 case of Harassment. The most common violations of the Government forces during the same period were 20 cases of Harassment, 13 cases of Extortion and 7 cases of Restriction of Movement.

Most of the complaints received by SLMM in December were in Batticaloa district which received 61 complaint, all against LTTE. In December 46 complaints were received in Jaffna, thereof 24 against LTTE and 22 against the Government side. Other districts recorded much lower number of complaints, 16 were received in Vavuniya, 12 in Mannar, 7 in Ampara and in Trincomalee only 1 complaint was received by SLMM.

A clear downward trend in the number of ruled ceasefire violations can be seen in the last months of 2002. Violations of LTTE went down from more than 50 cases in September, to under 40 in November and being only 19 in December. Violations of the Government side went from 5 in September to none in November and only 1 in December. The same downward trend can also be seen in the number of received complaints about Child Recruitment of LTTE, where complaints went down from more than 60 in September to 38 in November and down to 28 in December.