The top European peace monitor in Sri Lanka has suggested that Tamil rebels are trying to force an end to a four-year ceasefire after they demanded that some foreign observers leave the country, a report said yesterday.
As a spike in violence pushes the tropical island nation toward a resumption of full-scale civil war, the rebels have opposed Finns, Swedes or Danes working as peace monitors, because the 25-member EU in May listed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as a terrorist group.
Of the five countries in the peace mission -- Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Iceland -- only Norway and Iceland are not EU members.
"Do they want to terminate the ceasefire agreement ... This may be the interpretation if the LTTE goes through with its demand," the Sunday Times quoted Ulf Henricsson, chief of the mission, as saying.
"We are not here as EU representatives. There is no rationale to their argument," he was quoted as saying.
Last month, the LTTE gave the mission one month to withdraw EU members, but later extended the deadline until Sept. 1. It said it couldn't guarantee the security of the EU monitors after Sept. 1.
Henricsson said there were still ambiguities about the LTTE's demand.
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