The international truce monitoring team in Sri Lanka which overlooked the 2002 cease-fire agreement (CFA) bowed out here Wednesday, stressing that no military solution was possible to end the island's drawn-out separatist armed conflict.
"I hope that those responsible would be able to recognize the complexity of the problem in order to manage it and find ways to reduce human pain than increase it," Lars J. Solvberg, the head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) told reporters.
The SLMM was set up as a tool to monitor the implementation of the Norwegian backed truce agreement between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
The distrust nurtured between the LTTE and the government despite the CFA over last six years had dealt a setback on the peace process, Solvberg said.
He said the SLMM was appreciated, blocked, slammed and accused of being powerless, inefficient and utterly biased, said the SLMM head.
However, their presence in the north and east at ground level did make a difference despite the criticism leveled at them, Solvberg added.
"This complex problem cannot be solved by military means," Solvberg stressed, adding that it was not the SLMM's mandate to offer advice to the parties.
The SLMM originally consisting of 60 truce monitors from Nordic countries arrived in Sri Lanka almost immediately after the signing of the truce agreement in Feb. 22, 2002.
Their numbers were reduced to about 20 in May 2006 when the LTTE objected to the presence of monitors representing European Union member states.
The SLMM winded up operations at 7:00 p.m. local time (1330 GMT)Wednesday as a result to the government decision made on Jan. 2 to unilaterally abrogate the truce with effect from Jan. 16.
Source: Xinhua
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