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“With the signing of the Ceasefire Agreement, both the Government and the LTTE are under obligation to ensure that human rights are observed. It is everyone’s responsibility. The SLMM is simply a monitoring body. Sri Lanka has a Police Force to ensure democracy”, Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission spokesman Teitur Torkelson told the PRIU today referring to the attacks on the EPDP office in Nelliady recently. “We agree that the demonstrations held do seem to be organized and some people in the NorthEast feel that the LTTE is behind it. We have not got any hard evidence as yet to blame the LTTE with regard to the attacks on the EPDP offices,” he added. Torkelson was reacting to a statement sent to the SLMM yesterday by the EPDP challenging the SLMM’s claim that there was no hard evidence to link the LTTE with the attacks on the EPDP in Nelliady. "The SLMM, being an organisation comprising representatives of democratic countries of Europe has a moral obligation to ensure democracy and human rights in the North-East of Sri Lanka," the EPDP said in their statement. It said: "On December 10 around noon, about 75 LTTE members, arrived by 3 mini buses in Nelliady Junction. They, thereafter, forcibly collected innocent civilians from the market place. They also forced passengers from three buses at Nelliady Junction to join them. The LTTE members consisted mainly of Jaffna University students hailing from the Wanni.” "The LTTE members thereafter assembled the crowd before the EPDP office in Nelliady and started pelting stones at the office. When they were ordered by the Police to disperse, they did not do so.” "At about 1.30 p.m., the LTTE members started hurling petrol bombs and bottle grenades at the EPDP office. The bottle grenades consisted of empty bottles containing firecrackers, lighted prior to being hurled at the target. The Police fired warning shots in the air and ordered the crowd to move away from the EPDP office but the LTTE members prevented the crowd from dispersing.” "The Police had no alternative other than to fire tear gas shells and to baton-charge the crowd. Following the use of tear gas, members of the public who were forcibly collected from the market place and from passenger buses ran away to safety. The Police arrested 12 mischief-makers, five of whom possessed LTTE identity cards. The members of the LTTE numbering around 75 moved a distance away from the EPDP office and continued shouting slogans. At about 4.30 p.m. the members of the LTTE boarded the 3 minibuses and left the area.” "The latest LTTE protest in Nelliady is another in a series of protests orchestrated initially on December 5 in Delft and later continued in Chunnakam, Mallakam, Manipay, Atchuvely, Kayts and Velanai.” "The EPDP has written to the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission urging that it should not brush aside these incidents stating that there is no hard evidence to link the LTTE to them. It has further suggested that the SLMM should videotape all such incidents in the future to enable pinpointing the culprits. The SLMM being an organization comprising representatives of democratic countries of Europe has a moral obligation to ensure democracy and human rights in the North-East of Sri Lanka." “Our understanding is that the EPDP is a legal political group with full rights to be anywhere they want. The LTTE should accept other political parties,” Torkelson said. “With the signing of the Ceasefire Agreement, both the Government and the LTTE are under obligation to ensure that human rights are observed. It is everyone’s responsibility. The SLMM is simply a monitoring body. Sri Lanka has a Police Force to ensure democracy”, he added. The Police in Colombo were unable to confirm the claims made by the EPDP that LTTE cadres were among those arrested and Police officials in Jaffna could not be reached for comment.
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