International truce monitors said last week they believe Sri Lankan troops are involved in killing ethnic Tamil civilians in the island’s north, contrary to government denials.



The unarmed Nordic Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) said probable Tamil Tiger attacks on the military have been followed by disappearances and open killings of ethnic Tamil civilians.



“We have very strong indications that at least part of the government troops have been involved in these killings,” Jouni Suninen, the Finnish ex-army officer who heads the monitors’ northern Vavuniya office, said.



“The pattern is clear,” he added. In one case, a civilian was killed 60 metres from an army checkpoint. The soldiers told the monitors they heard nothing.



Suninen said at least 40 people have been killed in the last month by suspected Tigers, soldiers or associated groups around Vavuniya, just beyond the southern border of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) territory.



The government denies any involvement in civilian killings, which come amid fears a low intensity conflict raging despite a 2002 truce could escalate into an all out return to a two-decade civil war.



The Tigers have pulled out of peace talks indefinitely and have warned the island is moving towards the fringes of war.



“Our troops are not involved in anything like that,” said army spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe. “They are disciplined.”



For the first time, the monitoring mission’s field staff were authorised to speak on the record about what they had found. They say publicity is the only weapon they have.



Previously, all media comment from the SLMM - which has 60 unarmed monitors from Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway and Iceland - has come from its Colombo headquarters.



Driving along a road only a couple of miles from the border in his white jeep, Finnish homicide policeman Jukka Heiskanen points out where three suspected Tiger fragmentation mine ambushes hit military patrols.



Some believe the Tigers deliberately wanted to inflame tensions and provoke retaliation to win sympathy in their struggle for a separate homeland for ethnic Tamils.



The monitors say suspected military killings target civilians believed to be LTTE-linked. Ponnuthurai Thayanithi, 27, killed last week, had one sister who had died fighting for the Tigers but was not believed to have any direct link.



“This is where the girl was killed in the middle of the day,” Heiskanen said. “As you can see, we’re about 60 metres from an army checkpoint. There are always three soldiers there. The girl had two bullets in her head. They didn’t hear or see anything.”



Heiskanen said he asked the soldiers why they had not noticed the killing taking place within sight and earshot. They said that as the shots were fired, there was a particularly strong gust of wind, so they had heard nothing.



“I said ‘how do you know what was the exact time?’” he said. “It is ridiculous. They don’t even try to make things up.”



Police initially refused to come and inspect the body, said Heiskanen, adding the SLMM patrols were increasingly moving beyond simple monitoring into peacekeeping.



People have disappeared at government checkpoints and turned up dead. A white van seen before some of the killings appears to have moved with impunity through checkpoints and in one case was reportedly seen leaving an army camp, the monitors say.