COLOMBO, July 21, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger rebels Friday rejected a call from Sweden to reconsider a September 1 deadline for truce monitors from European Union member states to quit, a pro-rebel website said.
The Tamilnet.com website said Tigers told a visiting Swedish envoy that ceasefire monitors from EU member states Denmark, Finland and Sweden, which in May outlawed the Tigers, will have to quit by the September 1 deadline set by the rebels.
“There is no change in the stand of the Liberation Tigers, expressed in the post-EU ban scenario, with regards to the engagement of EU member states (in truce monitoring),” the Tamilnet quoted Tiger political chief S. P. Thamilselvan as saying.