””””COLOMBO, February 24 (Xinhuanet) -- The
Norwegian-brokered peace talks between the Sri Lankan government and separatist
Tamil Tigerrebels are to begin in three months, Prime Minister Ranil
Wickremesinghe said on Sunday.
””””Speaking at a news conference, Wickremesinghe, who Friday entered a
historic truce deal with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels,
said that the next step of the process was tostart talks on talks.
””””However, he said that despite the permanent truce agreement with LTTE
rebels, the government had not worked out any blue prints just yet of a solution
to be offered to the LTTE rebels.
””””He said the LTTE are free to put anything on their agenda to be discussed
at peace talks but a separate state would never figure in such negotiations. He
maintained that his government would always defend the territorial integrity and
sovereignty of Sri Lanka as one state.
””””The government is seeking a political solution to end the country's drawn
out ethnic conflict that has left over 64,000 dead.The LTTE rebels have been
fighting against the government troops since 1983 with an aim to set up a
separate homeland for the minority Tamils in the north and east of the country.
””””Responding to criticism by the leftist party JVP or the People's Liberation
Front, the prime minister dismissed the notion that by signing the truce pact
his government had conceded to the rebels.
””””In a statement, the JVP had called Wickremesinghe's truce pactas "an
agreement of surrender that has undermined the Sri Lankan state before Tiger
terrorism."
””””The prime minister said the political and financial support ofthe
international community for Sri Lanka's peace process is vital.Foreign
governments have expressed their support for the rehabilitation in the north and
east of the country, he added.
””””He said that the international team of monitors from Nordic countries would
be arriving here later in the week to start work on monitoring ceasefire between
the government and LTTE rebels. Enditem
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