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K Venkataramanan in Colombo
Foreign monitors keeping a tab on the peace agreement between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam on Monday certified that both sides were sticking to the pact and working towards a 'lasting peace'.
The Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission in a review of the working of the ceasefire in the last five months since it came into force on February 23 said the security forces had vacated most of the places of worship, schools in the north and east.
The statement by SLMM is likely to put pressure on the LTTE not to delay proposed peace talks in Thailand on the ground that the troops had not moved out of temples and schools by the deadline of August 2, as mandated by the truce agreement.
In a muted warning to the Tigers, the SLMM said it continued to get complaints of extortion, child recruitment and abduction by them.
It hoped the LTTE 'will realise the tremendous negative impact this is having on their organisation in the eyes of the public in Sri Lanka and internationally'.
The monitoring body, comprising observers from the Nordic countries, said both parties were 'preparing, not for war, but for lasting peace through gradual and steady implementation of the ceasefire agreement'.
The SLMM described as encouraging a recent statement by an LTTE political wing leader that the rebels would not be 'very technical in demanding 100 per cent implementation of the truce terms as a precondition for talks'.
"The timetable in the ceasefire agreement has been quite optimistic," SLMM head Major General Trond Furuhovde of Norway said, referring to provisions that set deadlines of 30, 60, 90 and 160 days for different tasks to be carried out by both sides from the first day of the truce.
"SLMM has accepted delays in implementation of certain issues and it is good to see that both parties have shown a mutual understanding for that and are still moving forward," he said.
According to details given by the monitoring body, out of 159 places of worship used as barracks by the army, only two are still occupied by forces and three partly occupied.
A great majority of schools buildings had been vacated too, with only 13 schools, including 11 in Jaffna district, still under military occupation, most of them within high security zones where very few people reside.
It is, therefore, clear that the Sri Lanka Army has so far carried out the prime minister's orders with good success, the SLMM said.
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