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Global call for temporary ceasefire

— Photo: AFP

Memorial: A Sri Lankan soldier looks at portraits that are believed to be of Black Tiger suicide bombers at a training facility captured by the Army in Mullathivu on Wednesday.

Colombo: The Sri Lanka Co-Chairs (Norway, Japan, U.S. and European Union) appealed for a “temporary no-fire period” in Sri Lanka in a statement on Wednesday which also called on the LTTE to discuss with the Sri Lankan government the modalities for ending hostilities, including laying down of arms, renunciation of violence, acceptance of the government’s offer of amnesty and participation as a political party in a process to achieve a just and lasting political solution.

It urged the government and the LTTE to declare a temporary no-fire period to allow evacuation of the sick and wounded and providing aid to civilians.

Earlier in the day, in his Independence Day address President Mahinda Rajapaksa said his government had succeeded within a short span of two-and-a-half years “to almost completely defeat the cowardly forces of terror that had wrapped our entire nation in fear through several decades” and appealed to all those who left the country because of war to return.

Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and U.K. Foreign Secretary David Miliband, in a joint statement released here, said they had discussed their serious concern about deteriorating humanitarian situation in northern Sri Lanka and affirmed their insistence on a political resolution to the conflict.

“The time to resume political discussions is now and we will continue to work with the Tokyo Co-Chairs, the Sri Lankan government, and the UN to facilitate such a process. Secretary Clinton and Foreign Secretary Miliband call on both the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE to agree to a temporary no-fire period. Both sides need to allow civilians and wounded to leave the conflict area and to grant access for humanitarian agencies,” the statement said.

Responding to the Co-Chairs statement, the pro-LTTE Tamil National Alliance (TNA) argued that it was the need to resist the physical subjugation of the Tamil people by the Sri Lankan state that led to the “advent of Tamil armed resistance and it is only the LTTE that is resisting the aforementioned genocidal designs of the Sri Lanka State”.

The TNA argued that it had been the consistent position of the Tamil people in Sri Lanka that the “conflict between the Tamil nation and the Sinhala nation” is fundamentally political in nature and needs a political solution.

Separately, the Defence Ministry said that troops seized control of “the largest LTTE suicide bomber and advanced combat training facility” in Mullathivu district following hours of fierce fighting.

The Ministry said evidence suggested the LTTE leader had made frequent visits at the location which was also believed to be the exact site where the LTTE human bombs were hosted their “final dinner of death” along with Prabakaran.

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