A spokesman for the Nordic
Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, Thorfinnur Omarsson, said, ''Nobody has pulled out of the cease-fire,'' but he agreed the heavy fighting now going on indicated clear violation of the 2002 agreement.
The Nordic
Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission monitoring the cease-fire currently in tatters was attempting Sunday to reach Muttur in a convoy of vehicles.
The Nordic
Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission policing the 2002 Ceasefire Agreement between the government and the LTTE recently ruled that the LTTE had no rights at sea and that sovereignty of the country's territorial waters lay with the Sri Lankan state.
The
Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission has reported that more than 650 people have been killed in a spike in violence in Sri Lanka since December despite a truce that is in place.
The Nordic-run
Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, or SLMM, will not be able to function following objections from the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to the presence of members from countries that banned the Tamil Tigers.
Three out of the five Scandinavian countries contributing personnel to the
Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission are members of the European Union.
The
Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission overseeing the February 2002 Cease-fire Agreement had a monitor on board the troop ferry and a patrol boat on its escort flotilla, both of whom were safe.
Both vessels carrying the cease-fire monitors flew the flag of the five-nation
Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission comprising Nordic states.
''The suspension is temporary,'' said a spokesman for the Nordic
Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission supervising the February 2002 cease-fire agreement between the Sri Lanka government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
''We are frustrated,'' Helen Olofsdottir, spokeswoman of the Nordic
Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, said after the LTTE refused to make the trip.