Lankan Tigers reject direct talks with country's president
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
New Delhi, May 24, IRNA
Sri Lanka-LTTE-President
Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels have rejected a call for direct talks between its elusive leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, and President Mahinda Rajapakse.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said they told the delegation of Buddhist and Christian clergy which made the request that any high-level meeting would only be through peace broker Norway and not directly, media reports said here quoting the LTTE's official website.
The suggestion for a Rajapakse-Prabhakaran meeting was made during a discussion with LTTE political wing leader S P Thamilselvan in the rebel-held town of Kilinochchi.
"While appreciating your concern for peace and harmony, we cannot by-pass (peace broker) Norway in establishing contacts with the government to initiate a dialogue with President Mahinda Rajapakse as suggested by inter-religious group," the LTTE quoted Thamilselvan as saying.
It said the delegation of Buddhist and Christian leaders told Thamilselvan that the president was keen to meet with Prabhakaran and discuss a political settlement to the islands drawn out ethnic conflict.
Thamilselvan urged the clergy to impress on the Sri Lankan government to fully implement the February 2002 truce as a confidence-building measure between the two sides.
"If it is sincerely interested in making progress in the peace process, it has to ensure full implementation of the ceasefire in so far as the delivery of normalcy to the war-affected civilian Tamil population," the LTTE said.
President Rajapakse, during his election campaign last year, had said he was prepared to go the extra mile to meet face to face with Prabhakaran in a bid to resolve the decades-old ethnic conflict.
2160/2321/1414
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
