2ND LEAD

SLMM has no mandate to rule on Tamils sovereign rights - Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 May 2006, 09:09 GMT]
"We entered the peace process based on a status-quo achieved in the battlefield in our territory. Nobody has the right to pass judgement on the sovereign rights of our access to the adjacent sea and airspace of our homeland," told LTTE's Political Head S.P.Thamilchelvan after having an urgent meeting with the Head of the Scandinavian truce monitors on Friday. The ceasefire and the entire peace process between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) is a process based on parity of status and military power of balance. The SLMM statement issued on Thursday was a serious statement affecting this framework, LTTE's Political Head told media.

"We did not enter the negotiations to be passed judgements based on classifications such as non-state actor. The CFA and the entire peace process is between two parties, it is not based on LTTE as a non-state actor and GoSL as a state actor," LTTE's Political Head said.

"The CFA was entered with the GoSL and the LTTE having a military with an Army, Naval force, and Air-wing.The party, LTTE, has been effectively running a civil administration in the liberated areas consisting 60 to70 percent of the entire homeland. There are necessary infra-structures for the civil administration, policing, judiciary. There are humanitarian bodies. The whole world has witnessed the efficiency of our infra-structure and civil administration," Mr. Thamilchelvan elaborated.

"You don't attempt to classify us as a non-state actor."



"We have conveyed our leadership's disappointment and objection to the SLMM statement in strongest possible terms to the Head of the CFA monitors," Mr. Thamilchelvan told media explaining the clashes that erupted in the seas off Vadamaradchi East and the aerial bombardment by the Sri Lankan Air Force (SLAF) bombers on Vanni Thursday evening.

"We have demanded an immediate response from the SLMM to the statement issued without apparent forethought," he further said.

Head of Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission discussed in depth the security concerns of the truce monitors with the Liberation Tigers.



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