A Sri Lanka Army Soldier and Sri Lanka Police Constable were released from Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) custody in Kilinochchi on Wednesday afternoon 05th of March. The release of the two men took place after a three hours long meeting between Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) and the LTTE leadership in LTTE Political Headquarters in Kilinochchi. The LTTE leadership declared that the release of the two men was a goodwill gesture to SLMM, recognition of SLMM’s authority and a sign of the dedication of the LTTE leadership to the Ceasefire Agreement and the Peace Process.

The two men; Army Corporal Nimal Kumara and Police Constable D.S.A. Gunasekara were handed over to the SLMM and flown in a Sri Lanka Air force helicopter to the Defence Ministry grounds in Colombo, where they were handed over to the Government authorities. Corporal Kumara had been detained by LTTE since 24th of December 2002 and Constable Gunasekara since 21st of February 2003.

Participants in the meeting were Major General Trond Furuhovde, Head of SLMM, Major General Tryggve Tellefsen, who will take over as Head of SLMM on the 7th of March, Velupillai Pirapaharan, leader of LTTE, Anton Balasingham, chief negotiator of LTTE and S.P. Tamilselvan, head of LTTE’s political wing. This was the last meeting between the LTTE leadership and Major General Trond Furuhovde, who has been the Head of SLMM from the beginning of the Ceasefire Agreement. During this meeting Major General Tryggve Tellefsen was introduced to the LTTE leadership as the new Head of SLMM.

The main subject of this meeting was to secure the release of the abovementioned Army Corporal and Police Constable, as the Head of SLMM had ruled in late February that they should be released. A release mechanism to prevent prolonged detainment of members of LTTE or the Government forces was also discussed. The LTTE leadership reacted positively to the implementation of such a mechanism, with the involvement of SLMM. The balance of power of the two parties to the Ceasefire Agreement was discussed and in principle accepted by the LTTE leadership, which raised concerns about the buildup of the Sri Lanka Military. Finally, the importance of increased working capacity of the parties in relations to the Peace process was discussed, as it is the evaluation of SLMM that there seems to be a need for more delegation of authority and more qualified people on both sides, to strengthen the continuing forward movement of the Peace Process in Sri Lanka.