This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 COLOMBO 000120 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR SA/INS 
PACOM FOR FPA 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/17/2015 
TAGS: PTER PHUM PGOV CE LTTE
SUBJECT: SRI LANKA TRUCE MONITORING MISSION TEMPORARILY 
SUSPENDS OPERATIONS IN TRINCOMALEE FOLLOWING RECENT VIOLENCE 
 
REF: COLOMBO 0055 
 
Classified By: DCM JAMES F. ENTWISTLE.  REASON:  1.4 (B,D). 
 
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SUMMARY 
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¶1.  (C) Summary:  On January 17 the Nordic-sponsored Sri 
Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) announced the temporary 
suspension of operational activities in the eastern district 
of Trincomalee following an apparent Liberation Tigers of 
Tamil Eelam (LTTE) attack on a Sri Lanka Navy bus.  Although 
no military personnel died in the attack, two civilians were 
killed in the "crossfire," according to the military 
spokesman--an account disputed by Tamil eyewitnesses.  The 
SLMM, which is criticized by some Sinhalese nationalists for 
pro-LTTE bias, on January 13 issued an uncharacteristically 
strong public statement on recent LTTE attacks against the 
Sri Lankan military that warned that, absent positive steps 
from both parties, a resumption of hostilities seems 
imminent.  We are continuing to monitor the security 
situation in Trincomalee and elsewhere and have convened a 
meeting of the Emergency Action Committee on January 19 to 
review the situation.   End summary. 
 
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TURMOIL IN TRINCOMALEE 
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¶2.  (SBU) At mid-morning on January 17 a remote-detonated 
device exploded near a bus carrying Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) 
personnel on a well-traveled road in the eastern district of 
Trincomalee, about 7 km from USAID's Office of Transition 
Initiative (OTI) office.  Eight sailors were injured in the 
blast.  Arthur Tveiten, the head of the Nordic-sponsored Sri 
Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) in Trincomalee, told poloff 
that following the blast members of the security forces 
converged on the area, and SLMM monitors heard sporadic 
gunfire for about 30-40 minutes.  When the gunfire stopped, 
two Tamil civilians (both reportedly shot in the head) were 
dead, several others injured, and more than 50 had been 
rounded up for questioning.  Military spokesman Brigadier 
General Atula Jayawardena told POL FSN the following morning 
that the two civilians had been killed in the "cross fire" 
when a group of suspected Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam 
(LTTE) cadres opened fire on security forces after the blast. 
 
 
¶3.  (C)  In his conversation with poloff, however, Tveiten 
disputed the spokesman's account.  Tveiten asserted that SLMM 
had received no reports of "crossfire" and asserted that it 
would have been extremely difficult for armed LTTE cadres to 
infiltrate that particular stretch of road, which he 
described as typically heavily patrolled by the security 
forces, unobserved.  (That said, the LTTE apparently did 
manage to plant the mine that hit the Navy bus unobserved.) 
We have no reports of any members of the security 
forces--including the sailors who stumbled off the bus in the 
immediate aftermath of the blast and could have provided 
prime fodder for LTTE marksmen--being injured in the 
crossfire. 
 
¶4.  (C)  A Sri Lankan Catholic priest who was at his NGO 
jobsite about 50 meters away at the time of the blast, told 
poloff that he heard gunfire after the detonation and 
asserted that Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers on the scene were 
spraying bullets everywhere.  He later acknowledged, however, 
that he kept his head down during the gunfire and did not 
actually see anyone shooting.  Poloff also spoke by telephone 
with a Tamil restaurant owner who had been injured in the 
post-blast gunfire.  According to this source, the soldiers 
normally stationed on the road began firing wildly after the 
blast occurred.  The restaurant owner said he sought refuge 
inside his business and was hit in the arm by a bullet.  He 
confirmed that the shooting went on for about 30 minutes, 
during which time he observed eight motorbikes carrying two 
masked SLA soldiers each.  POL FSN spoke with another local 
business owner, who said SLA soldiers entered his shop after 
the blast, damaging some of the inventory and stealing cell 
phones, phone cards and the equivalent of USD 200 in local 
currency. 
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SLMM SUSPENDS TRINCO OPERATIONS 
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¶5.  (SBU)   Citing "the recent escalation of violence in 
Trincomalee," on the evening of January 17 the SLMM announced 
the temporary suspension of operational activities in 
Trincomalee.  In a conversation with poloff the following 
day, Tveiten said that the SLMM action was not taken in 
response to a particular threat but rather because of general 
concerns about safety risks in the increasingly volatile 
environment.  He added that the particular road on which the 
explosion took place is one that SLMM typically travels 
several times a day--sometimes accompanied by the 
military--and that two SLMM monitors happened to be only a 
few hundred meters away from the site when the blast occurred. 
 
¶6.  (SBU)  Trincomalee has seen near-continuous hartals, or 
general shutdowns, since the January 2 killings of five Tamil 
students (reftel).  Schools opened January 16 for the first 
time since the beginning of the month after police, the Tamil 
People's Forum and the SLMM negotiated an end to the hartals. 
 The back-to-back shutdowns (some of which were called by an 
LTTE-backed Tamil organization and some of which were called 
by Sinhalese nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) 
fronts) pose an obvious and severe economic strain on all 
residents, regardless of ethnicity, and are widely resented. 
(When the JVP MP for Trincomalee turned up in town to see how 
the JVP-sponsored shutdown Jan. 12-14 was being observed, his 
vehicle was attacked by angry Sinhalese, and he was forced to 
beat a hasty retreat.)  Local OTI staff reported a virtual 
run on the pawn shops--a generally reliable indicator of 
economic stress--when banks and businesses were allowed to 
open for a half day last week. 
 
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BLUNT WORDS FROM THE MONITORS 
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¶7.  (U) The SLMM action follows an uncharacteristically stern 
public statement from the monitors on January 13 condemning a 
January 12 attack on an SLN vehicle that killed 10 sailors in 
Vavuniya and describing as "unacceptable" repeated LTTE 
claims that "'the People'" are behind the attacks on the 
military." The statement went on to fault the security forces 
for harassing the civilian population and implicitly blamed 
the Government for allowing "alternative armed elements" to 
operate in Government-controlled areas and destabilize the 
ceasefire.  Calling on both parties to remedy the situation 
"instead of merely blaming each other and pointing fingers," 
the statement emphasized the need for evidence of "more 
commitment from the two Parties if war is not to break out in 
Sri Lanka."  Within hours of the statement being issued, on 
the night of January 13 an explosive device detonated under a 
parked vehicle in the SLMM compound in the eastern district 
of Batticaloa, damaging several vehicles.  No SLMM personnel 
were present on the compound at the time of the blast, and 
the security guard on duty (who was reportedly asleep at the 
time of the incident) was not injured.  No one has claimed 
responsibility for this attack. 
 
¶8.  (C)  SLMM head Hagrup Haukland met with the LTTE in 
Kilinochchi on January 16.  Norwegian Ambassador Hans 
Brattskar told the Ambassador the following day that Haukland 
"went pretty far," telling the LTTE that the SLMM cannot 
operate in a situation of armed conflict and threats. 
Brattskar said Haukland essentially accused the LTTE of lying 
when it denied responsibility for recent attacks on the 
security forces and other violence. 
 
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COMMENT 
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¶9.  (C) The SLMM suspension may have been just as much a 
political decision--to send a wake-up call to the parties 
that the current environment is unacceptable--as a security 
decision.  The Emergency Action Committee will meet on 
January 19 to assess the situation.   We continue to monitor 
the safety of OTI staff and the small American community in 
the area (and in other parts of the north and east) closely. 
 
¶10.  (C) Comment (cont.):  The pressure on security forces in 
the north and east has been unrelenting since the 
presidential election in mid-November, and if our sources' 
accounts of events are accurate, the good order and 
discipline generally shown by the security forces thus far 
may be beginning to fray.  The security forces' reaction to 
the blast as reported to us, unfortunately, plays right into 
LTTE hands and does little to improve the Government's image 
within an already suspicious and fearful Tamil community.  We 
will use the opportunity presented by upcoming high-level 
meetings with Sri Lankan officials to stress the need for 
continued restraint, despite the constant provocations. 
 
 
 
 
 
LUNSTEAD