December 03, 2007	Monday	Ziqa'ad 22, 1428

COLOMBO: Nordic peace monitors have warned Sri Lanka is sliding back to its days of all-out warfare, with the past week seeing the government and Tamil rebels trading bombs and bullets that left scores dead.

The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), put in place by peace broker Norway to monitor a 2002 ceasefire agreement, has now said it was “alarmed” at the situation.

“The rising number of civilian casualties in Sri Lanka is a cause for grave concern to the SLMM,” the organisation said, referring to twin bomb attacks that rocked the capital of Colombo and aerial and ground bombings in rebel areas.

“The SLMM is alarmed about the situation that closely resembles a level of violence associated with the period prior to the signing of the ceasefire agreement in 2002,” it said.

The ceasefire has been progressively deteriorating for many months, but recent weeks have seen a sharp acceleration of the 35-year-old conflict — Asia’s longest-running civil war.

Earlier this year, the government ousted the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) from the east of the island, confining them to their mini-state in the north.

The SLMM was set to monitor the peace and keep track of ceasefire violations — but now it cannot keep up and stopped issuing rulings on hostilities in May.

The question now being asked by many observers is whether the SLMM, which has no power to enforce the truce agreement, should still be here.

On Tuesday, Tamil Tiger chief Velupillai Prabhakaran said peace talks were a waste of time and also vowed to strike back at the island’s “genocidal” Sinhalese-dominated government.

He also said the SLMM had failed to speak out against government violations.

But the peace monitors say they are staying put for the time being, in the event the government and the Tigers may wear each other out on the battlefield in the coming months.

The head of the SLMM, retired Norwegian army general Lars Solvberg, said his team found itself in a “catch 22” situation.—AFP