Colombo: Three Tamil Tiger rebels blew themselves to pieces in Sri Lanka on February
7 shortly after Scandinavian monitors ruled they were smuggling an anti-aircraft
weapon into the island, spokesman for truce monitors, Teitur Torkelsson said.
Three members of the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) set fire to their
trawler, which later blew up with all three on board off the island's Northern
peninsula of Jaffna.
"They have blown up the boat. They have gone with the blast," said Torkelsson, the
spokesman for the Scandinavian-led Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), which was
called earlier in the day to rule if the rebels were violating the truce.
Sri Lankan Navy had originally intercepted the Tiger vessel on February 6 evening
and called the SLMM to investigate after the three men onboard refused to allow the
Navy to search the boat and threatened to commit suicide by taking cyanide.
The Tiger trawler was found with Indian registration markings off the small islet of
Delft in Northern Sri Lanka, Torkelsson said.
He said three Tiger cadres onboard the trawler had earlier threatened to commit
suicide by if the Sri Lankan Navy boarded the vessel to make a routine inspection.
"At that stage it was decided between the parties that the SLMM would inspect and
give a ruling," Torkelsson said.
"Two of our Naval monitors went to the scene at day break today to carry out the
inspection and found a 23-millimetre (anti-aircraft) heavy machine gun and anti-
aircraft ammunition," Torkelsson said.
The spokesman said the SLMM considered the LTTE action a clear violation of the
ceasefire that went into effect from February 23 last year.
"But it is up to the Sri Lankan authorities to decide what action they want to take
against three members of the LTTE who were aboard," he said before the blowing up of
the boat happened.
There was no immediate reaction from the LTTE.
The incident came hours before the LTTE and the Sri Lankan government were set to
open the fifth round of their peace talks in Berlin.
There was a similar detection of an LTTE armed boat movement in the island's East in
October, and the rebels at that time said they had not asked their cadres to break
the ceasefire and wanted the authorities to take action according to the normal law.
The Tigers took two SLMM members hostage in July when they boarded a Tiger vessel
for an inspection.
PTI
