Lanka says still open to negotiated political settlement
Colombo (PTI): Sri Lanka on Friday said it was still open to a "negotiated political settlement" with the Tamil Tigers to the over two-decade-old ethnic conflict despite scrapping a ceasefire agreement, which it claimed, had been violated "thousands of times" by the rebels.
"I wish to underline that the termination of the CFA (Ceasefire Agreement) does not in anyway hamper the process of moving towards a negotiated political settlement," Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogallagama told reporters.
"In fact it gives us a broader space to pursue this goal in a manner that involves all sections of the Sri Lankan polity, which remained sidelined due to the CFA," he said after talks with heads of various missions on the abrogation of the ceasefire agreement.
He said President Mahinda Rajapakse had made it clear that the doors remain open for the LTTE to join this process.
"At the Thimpu Talks of 1985, the Indo-Sri Lanka Agreement of 1987, the 1990 talks between late President Premadasa and the LTTE, as well as talks between former President Chandrika Kumaratunga's administration and the LTTE in 1994 were not done within the presence of a CFA," he said.
The Minister charged the LTTE with violating the ceasefire "thousands" of times and being involved in indiscriminate targeting of civilians including women and children in recent weeks.
The minister said incidents such as the recent bomb blasts at a retail garment store and the army bus in Colombo as well as killing of UNP Parliamentarian T Maheswaran and the attempt on a Tamil minister Douglas Devananda made it clear that LTTE seeks to continue its "provocative" activities.
This, he said, was making a mockery of the CFA.
In reply to a question, Bogallagama said the 2002 CFA was not "routed" through the Foreign Ministry of Sri Lanka and that there was no use of continuing with an agreement that has been violated several times.
On the role of Norway which was had facilitated the peace process and CFA, Bogollagama said its role will be redefined under the new dispensation. He said that there can also be "wider participation of the international community."
"Now that there are new circumstances, we naturally expect the Norwegians to have a redefined role," Bogollagama said.
The minister said the deal was "flawed from the start," but insisted that Norwegian facilitation "need not be terminated with the ceasefire."
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who control the island's northern areas, have been fighting for an independent Tamil homeland since 1972.
