COLOMBO, 15 April — The Sri Lanka government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) moved closer to direct peace talks as the government indicated that the deproscription of the LTTE was becoming feasible as the Tigers progressively moved away from military action and entered civilian democratic politics.
Foreign Affairs Minister Tyronne Fernando told Arab News that in view of the gradual entry of the LTTE into civilian politics, the government was prepared to consider the lifting of the current ban on that organization.
The Foreign Affairs minister was commenting on LTTE leader Vellupillai Prabakaran’s reported insistence, at his media conference in Kilinochchi last week, that the ban on the LTTE should be lifted if it was to participate in the direct face-to-face talks scheduled to be held in Thailand. Fernando indicated that the issue of the deproscription should not be a problem if the LTTE clearly indicated a shift away from military activity and embraced civilian politics.
The direct peace talks in Thailand were originally due to be held in May, but diplomatic sources close to the facilitation process disclosed that the talks are now scheduled for early June, 2002.
Meanwhile Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe told a conference of newly elected members of Local Government bodies at the BMICH, Colombo, said that the readiness expressed by the LTTE in the Kilinochchi press conference to accept a political solution of internal self-determination without a division of the country is a important new development and opens new vistas in the peace process.
He said that though the majority of the people still had doubts about the sincerity of the LTTE, the LTTE too had its doubts about the Sri Lanka government. But the hope for peace in the country has increased. The people have given a mandate to the government and the politicians to work for peace.
Meanwhile, a Sri Lankan Muslim party has signed an agreement with the Tamil rebel chief aimed at protecting the rights of the minority Muslims displaced from the strife-torn north and eastern regions in the country, a party spokesman said yesterday.
The agreement was signed between the leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) leader Rauf Hakeem and the rebel chief Velupillai Prabhakaran in the rebel controlled Kilinochchi district.
The agreement provides for the return of some 100,000 Muslim civilians who fled the north and eastern provinces in 1990 after Tamil rebels launched a series of attacks on Muslims. Over 500 Muslims were killed in two separate attacks during this period. The agreement was a significant development in the Norwegian backed peace process in Sri Lanka aimed at ending the 19-year-old Tamil minority ethnic conflict which has claimed over 69,000 lives. The agreement also ensures that Muslims will not be forced to pay taxes in future.
