Lankan parties give `go ahead' for talks with LTTE
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
New Delhi, March 7, IRNA
Sri Lanka-LTTE-Parties
Sri Lankan political parties Tuesday resolved to support President Mahinda Rajapakse in continuing the Norwegian-brokered peace talks with Tamil Tiger rebels to find a lasting political solution to the ethnic conflict.
About 14 political parties, except the four-party Tamil National Alliance (TNA), took part in the all-important All Party Conference at the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo amid tight security.
"President Rajapakse explained to the political parties the outcome of the Geneva talks with the LTTE last month. The meeting that lasted for three hours ended successfully with the parties giving the `go ahead' to the president to continue talks with the LTTE," top presidential aide Chandrapala Liyanage told a leading Indian news agency, UNI, over phone.
According to sources, although the radical JVP and JHU had expressed their displeasure over the joint statement at the Geneva talks, they too have agreed to continue the current talks with the LTTE.
The all-party conference has taken place at a time when the government and LTTE are accusing each other of misinterpreting the Geneva joint statement in which the LTTE had agreed to stop violence against the government forces while the government had given the undertaking to control the activities of all armed groups.
The next round of talks is scheduled to be held from April 19 to 21 in Geneva.
Meanwhile, the JVP, in a statement issued after the all-party conference, said: "While continuing the dialogue with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the government should also ramp up its strengthening and training of the armed forces so that the LTTE will realize that going to war is not an option."
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