February 8, 2003	Saturday	Zul Hijjah 6,1423

COLOMBO, Feb 7: Three LTTE members blew themselves up in northern Sri Lanka on Friday after blasting their vessel into flames by high-powered bombs as the ship was about to be inspected by the Scandinavian truce monitors.

The incident came hours before the commencement in Berlin of the fifth round of peace talks between Colombo and the Tamil Tigers.

The Sri Lankan army had requestied the Norwegian ceasefire monitoring team, the Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission (SLMM), to investigate suspicious movements of LTTE vessels alleded carrying weapons.

According to SLMM sources, the LTTE hierarchy had given the greenlight for their search of the vessels.

However, LTTE sources said the incident was due to a communication failure between the LTTE “naval commander” and the guerillas on board the vessel.

“They were not informed of the agreed procedure, and the cadres set fire to the vessel and took their own lives,” LTTE sources in Vanni said.