Lankan president rules out LTTE's demand for separate homeland
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
New Delhi, Feb 14, IRNA
Sri Lanka-President-LTTE
Sri Lankan President Maninda Rajapakse ruled out the Liberation Tamil Tiger of Eelam's (LTTE) demand for a separate homeland in the Island's north and east, but said he would rein in armed groups, a central rebel demand ahead of crunch talks.
"There's only one country, we can share power. Not a separate state. That idea must be taken off, it is completely out," Rajapakse said ahead of upcoming talks with the rebels in Switzerland to avoid a slide back to war.
The LTTE have threatened to resume an armed struggle in the island that has led to two decades of civil war and killed more than 64,000 people until the 2002 truce unless the government gives them a separate homeland for ethnic Tamils, media reports said here today.
Rajapakse, who has trodden a moderate line since taking power in November, said he would meet a rebel demand to rein in armed groups.
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