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| Sunday, 21 August 2005 |
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Govt-LTTE to review CFA by Ranga Jayasuriya Norwegian peace facilitators will this week announce a date for a meeting between the government and the LTTE to review the implementation of the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) which would be the first high level meeting between the two parties since the Tigers suspended peace talks in April 2003. A Norwegian Embassy spokesman said the peace facilitators have informed the government that the LTTE had agreed to a direct meeting with the government and added that the Norwegians were working on the arrangements for the meeting. " The meeting will focus on a limited area, that is how to improve the implementation of the CFA." "It will deal specifically on the CFA and not anything else," Norwegian Embassy spokesman Tom Knappskog told the Sunday Observer. He said the peace facilitators would "hopefully" announce a date for the meeting this week. LTTE theoretician Anton Balasingham on Thursday agreed to a direct meeting with the government when Norwegian Foreign Minister Jan Petersen and his deputy Vidar Helgesen met him in London. Petersen conveyed to the LTTE theoretician a request by President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga for a direct meeting between the senior Security Forces personnel and LTTE cadres to "review the practical functioning of the ceasefire with a view to prevent further killings and other violations". Meanwhile pro-LTTE Tamilnet website quoted Balasingham as saying that talks would be held in Oslo within the next couple of weeks. "The discussions will also focus on the escalating violence in the North-East and other related issues," it added. The President last week wrote to Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik seeking an immediate meeting with the LTTE to review the CFA in the wake of the killing of Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar. Earlier, the President had requested the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission to arrange a meeting with the LTTE. Cabinet Spokesman Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva earlier said that the Government did not want to amend the CFA but insisted that some procedures should be agreed upon for its enforcement. He said it was the view of the President that the enforcement mechanism of the CFA should be reviewed. "The enforcement mechanism of the CFA seems to be very weak now," he said. |
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