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Explosion rocks SLMM Batticaloa office
By Chris Kamalendran
Hours after the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission issued a tough statement castigating the LTTE and the government for the deteriorating security situation in the north and east, a bomb ripped a vehicle parked outside the SLMM’s Batticaloa office around Friday midnight.

A dog in the compound was killed and three more SLMM vehicles were damaged in the explosion, police said. The SLMM’s Batticaloa chief, Gardar Larusson, and another truce monitor, who were in the office when the bomb placed under an SLMM vehicle exploded, were not injured in the incident, police said.

Mr. Larusson said the incident was a threat to the operations of the monitoring mission but he declined to hold any group responsible for the attack. Police said they believed the explosive device was placed under the vehicle when the private security guard had been asleep.

A dog in the compound died in the explosion. SLMM chief Hagrup Haukland yesterday expressed serious concern about the incident and said that it could affect the future operations of the mission.

“It is a serious incident. The group which is behind the attack is sending us a message that they are not supporting the peace process or our work. This is going too far. We will have to assess the situation. This is not the condition for us to work. This is a very serious thing,” he said.

Mr. Haukland said he had expressed his concern to the Norwegian facilitators, the Sri Lanka Peace Secretariat and immediate steps had been taken to beef up security for the monitors and their offices.

“It may come to a situation where we have to say enough is enough,” he said warning that the SLMM would be forced to suspend operations if it came under further attacks.

In a statement earlier on Friday the SLMM in the aftermath of the recent claymore mine attack in Chettikulam, said the LTTE’s position that it was not responsible for the string of attacks in the north and east and that civilians were responsible for them was ‘not acceptable’.

It also urged that “other armed groups” operating in the area should be disarmed. Meanwhile the LTTE political wing leader S. P. Thamilselvan condemned the attack, describing it as an “attempt to wreck the ceasefire agreement”.

“Our leadership expresses the continued support to the SLMM in its bid to implement the ceasefire agreement in its fully intended meaning and to rectify the deteriorating ceasefire environment," , Mr. Thamilselvan said in a letter to the SLMM chief.

Two more sailors killed in mine blast
Two sailors were killed and another was wounded in a claymore mine explosion at Saravanai junction in Kayts yesterday afternoon, military sources said.
The sailors were on patrol on cycles in the area when the explosion took place.

A civilian injured in the blast was admitted to the Jaffna Hospital while the Army arrested four suspects in a subsequent search operation and handed them over to the police.

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