Sri Lanka president invites Tamil Tigers for talks
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
New Delhi, Nov. 17, IRNA
Sri Lanka-LTTE-Talks
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse appealed to the Tamil Tigers to resume stalled peace talks and end the current spiral of violence that claimed over 3,300 lives since he came to power in November last year.
Unvieling the annual budget for 2007, which sees a 45 per cent jump in the country's defence spending next year, Rajapakse told parliament he was grateful to the international community for their efforts to help revive the island's peace process, a PTI report said here.
"A few days after I became president, they resumed hostile activities," the president said.
"We are deeply committed to peace. We are ready to consider all reasonable solutions to the minority issues.
"Only the LTTE has not accepted this so far. I invite them to lay down arms and join the democratic system and enter negotiations," he said.
Peace talks between Colombo and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam collapsed last month amid fears that the country could slip back to full-scale hostilities. The drawn out Tamil separatist conflict since 1972 has claimed over 60,000 lives.
Rajapakse, who is also the finance minister estimated defence spending next year at 139.55 billion rupees, up from an estimated 96.21 billion rupees in 2006.
The 2006 deficit is projected at 9.1 per cent of gross domestic product, up from 8.7 per cent the previous year. The deficit for 2007 is estimated at 7.5 per cent of GDP.
2160/1420
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
