Press and Information Officer of SLMM, Mr. Teitur Torkelsson, is wrongly quoted in the Late City Edition of the Sri Lankan Newspaper Daily Mirror, Friday 22nd November 2002, as saying that during the Trincomalee District Committee meeting of the SDN, (Sub-Committee on De-Escalation and Normalisation) QUOTE: ”…the LTTE had agreed to release the vehicles and weapons that they took into custody, when they took the seven soldiers hostage." This is an incorrect quote, hereby officially denied by SLMM.

The situation in the above mentioned matter remains unchanged. One truck and one weapon belonging to the Sri Lanka Army are still with the LTTE since the Seven Soldiers incident in September. LTTE has not yet agreed to release these things and that is why one of the subjects of the Trincomalee district Committee meeting was “Vehicle and weapon taken by LTTE.” No recommendation regarding this matter was made at the District Committee meeting in Trincomalee on Thursday. However, the Parties decided to discuss this case later at a separate meeting between local commanders in the area.

SLMM chairs and facilitates the District Committee meetings of the SDN on behalf of the facilitator. According to SLMM policies, SLMM only makes public statements on the subjects, participants and the atmosphere of the District Committee meetings. SLMM does not elaborate further on what takes place in these meetings. In addition, SLMM does not make public statements on actual recommendations made, as they are not final decisions, but only recommendations for the SDN.

The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, SLMM, monitors the implementation of the Ceasefire Agreement, reached by the Government of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, on 22nd february 2002. SLMM has six district offices and local monitoring committees in the North and East of Sri Lanka, two naval monitoring teams based in Jaffna and Trincomalee and Liaison officers to both the LTTE and the Sri Lankan Government. In addition to the six District Offices, SLMM has four Points of Contact in Akkaraipattu, Kayts, Mutur and Valaichchenai, open on a regular basis. SLMM is an International Nordic mission, consisting of monitors from the countries of Norway, Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Iceland and has headquarters in Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka.