Senior MPs call for UN intervention

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 May 1998, 23:59 GMT]
Senior Members of Parliament (MPs) from six political parties who met Mr. Olara Otunnu, UN Special Representative on Children and Armed Conflict, requested him to intervene in the Sri Lankan ethnic conflict to bring about a solution, despite the subject not coming strictly within his mandate, said sources in Colombo.

The meeting, held at Hotel Oberoi in Colombo last evening, was arranged by Lakshman Kadirgamar, Minister of Foreign Affairs.

The group of MPs also told Mr. Otunnu, to request the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, when he met their representatives, to demonstrate its readiness for peace.

Mr. Otunnu in turn, told the MPs of the six parties, that they should arrive at a consensus on what they were going to offer as a political solution to LTTE as a symbol of their sincerity in negotiating peace.

The group which met at Hotel Oberoi included Lakshman Kadirgamar, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lakshman Kirella Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Dilhan Perera (all from Peoples Alliance), Mahinda Samarasinghe, (United National Party), P P Devaraj (Ceylon Workers' Congress), Rauff Hakeem (Sri Lanka Muslim Congress and Deputy Chairman of Committees), Douglas Devananda, (Eelam People's Democratic Party) and a member from United Lalith Front.