06 October 2004	Wednesday	20 Shaban 1425

COLOMBO, Oct 5: Norwegian peace facilitators in Sri Lanka has urged the Tamil Tigers to stop killings of political opponents, Norwegian embassy said here on Tuesday.

During a meeting the Norwegian deputy foreign minister Vidar Helgesen had in Geneva with the LTTE's head of the political wing SP Thamilselvan, Norway had expressed its growing concern regarding continuing breaches of the cease fire agreement (CFA).

Helgesen emphasised the negative implications of ceasefire violations for the peace process as a whole and underlined that such violations also make the work of the international truce monitors, the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) difficult.

Meanwhile the SLMM announced that it had urged the LTTE to re-examine its position on the issue of the two detained home guards and hopes for their release. The two home guards were abducted and held by the LTTE on August 10 on charges of trespassing carrying weapons to areas under them.

The incident led to widespread protests by the majority Sinhala community in the eastern port town of Trincomalee. The demonstrators in early September had forced themselves into the SLMM's Trincomalee office and urged action to pressurise the LTTE to release the guards.

The SLMM chief, Major General (retd) Trond Furuhovde said that they urge political organisations in Trincomalee "to reconsider their actions, which in recent weeks have caused some inconvenience to the SLMM".