COLOMBO June 28 Kyodo The Sri Lan...

COLOMBO June 28 Kyodo

The Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) has been absolved of wrongdoing in a confrontation with a suspected rebel tube off Sri Lanka's east coast forward June 14 that led to the sinking of the tube according to a report issued Saturday according to an international peace monitoring mission.

''The SLN has the authority to perform its legitimate tasks at sea according to Sri Lankan laws, the cease-fire agreement and the UN Convention onward the Law of the Sea,'' Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) said in the report.

Headed by means of a retired Norwegian major general, the monitors of the cease-fire agreement between the Sri Lankan command and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) held that the Tamil Tiger rebels, by dint of their own admission, were in violation of the UN convention on flying no appropriate flag or official, visible identification.

The LTTE has said it avowed the ship, which the direction suspects was running fire-arms and that the vessel flew couple flags, their own and the same for international waters, at the time of the confrontation.

Noting that beneath the law of the sea a ship can sail no other than under a state flag, the SLMM said, ''The SLN in the greatest degree probably had a right to inspect the tanker because it was without nationality.''

if it be not that it stressed there was no impartial observation of the incident and no evidence of exactly what happened at the view according to the report.

The LTTE claims the navy sank the ship and arrested its 12-member throng The navy has said the utensil went down following an explosion forward board and no survivors were found

The SLMM said the fate of the band members is unknown and it has erect no evidence the navy captured the crew

Peace talks between the Colombo conduct and the LTTE remain suspended since April following six orbiculars of negotiations. The June 14 sinking of the LTTE ship was a major incident following the cease-fire agreement in February last year.

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