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Rajapakse sets terms for truce

B. Muralidhar Reddy

"LTTE must not threaten Trincomalee port"

COLOMBO: Reaffirming commitment to the 2002 Cease Fire Agreement (CFA), Sri Lanka President, Mahinda Rajapakse on Monday told the envoys of Co-Chairs of the island nation that his Government will "seriously consider" any initiative incorporating a clear and explicit commitment to a comprehensive and verifiable cessation of hostilities to be made by the LTTE leader, V. Prabhakaran.

Explicit modality

An official statement by the President's Secretariat quoted Mr. Rajapakse as saying that such a cessation of hostilities should include "explicit modality" of ensuring that Sampur area does not pose a military threat to the Trincomalee harbour and its environs emanating from the LTTE military presence in the area.

Sampur in the east has been the theatre of latest phase of hostilities between the Government and the LTTE.

It is from this area that the Tamil Tigers gave serious trouble to the Government by launching attack on the Trincomalee naval base as well as taking over the Muslim dominated Muttur down for a few days in the first week of August.

Intriguingly while the faxed statement from the President's Secretariat was explicit about the two conditions set by Mr. Rajapakse for cessation of hostilities, the official web site made no mention about them.

It merely said the envoys of the Co-Chairs connected with Sri Lankan peace process met with President to discuss at length the current situation in the country and what steps should be taken in the future.

Separately the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Lars Johan Sølvberg, a retired General of Norway, has been appointed as Acting Head of Mission for Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM).

In another development, suspected LTTE gunmen killed a former Tamil Parliamentarian in Jaffna. Sinnathamby Sivamaharajah was shot and killed at his in Tellippalai in Jaffna last night.

He was a former Member of Parliament of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) now headed by V. Anandasangharee, a leading critic of the LTTE.

Meanwhile, the Government said that it has taken all possible steps to address the issues arising out of the continuing fighting in the Jaffna peninsula and consequent hardships faced by ordinary citizens.

Because of the intense fighting, curfew is in force in the peninsula for the past 10 days.

In a statement K. Ganesh, Government Agent of Jaffna said arrangement are made to provide food stocks from the Government stores at Navatkuli on Monday to all the Multi-Purpose Cooperative Societies in the district.

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