Peace Group calls for early resumption of talks

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 December 2005, 18:22 GMT]
The National Anti-War Front (NAWF), in a statement issued in Colombo Thursday, called upon the Government of Sri Lanka to invite the Norwegian facilitators immediately to resume negotiations with the Liberation Tigers. NAWF also urged the militaries on both sides to meet with the assistance of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), to explore ways to stop the violence.

NAWF has also organized a Peoples’ Vigil at 6.00 p.m. on December 31 at the Colombo Independence Square to protest the violations of Ceasefire Agreement and to urge the parties to fulfill their commitment and obligations to the CeaseFire Agreement.

Excerpts from the statement issued by the NAWF follows:

The CeaseFire Agreement (CFA) is in a deep crisis. Although there is continued violation of the CFA over the years, the current phase of accelerated attacks against the State armed forces in the North and East and the attacks of the para-military groups against the LTTE are rapdidly pushing towards the resumption of hostilities between the government and the LTTE.

We condemn all forms of violations of the CFA. We express our condemnation against the increased attacks on State military forces by the LTTE, assassination of the Batticaloa Parliamentarian Mr. Joseph Pararajasingham and other attacks of para-military groups collaborating with security forces. The CFA cannot be protected without genuine commitment of the parties to the agreement. Any disputes related to CFA have to be resolved only through negotiations. It is immoral to use violence to address the grievances while the CFA is in operation.

We call upon the LTTE to stop immediately all forms of violations of the CFA, including the attack on State military forces and attacks on political opponents. In a similar manner, we call upon the Sri Lanka government to take every steps necessary to prevent all violations of the CFA either by the State armed forces or the para-military groups.

The very purpose of signing the CFA is to prevent the destruction of human lives and to create an environment conducive to negotiating a political settlement.

Although both parties have verbally expressed their preparedness and willingness to resume negotiation with the facilitation of Norwegian Government, little progress has been made so far. The majority of the people in Sri Lanka do not want to see a return to war.

We call upon the government and the LTTE to make every effort to stop all CFA violations and to demonstrate commitments to the CFA.

We wish to invite you, your family and friends to a peoples’ vigil at 6.00 p.m. on Sunday 31st December 2005 at the Independence Square premises. This vigil is organized to express our condemnation for the violation of the CFA and to call the parties to fulfill their commitment and obligation to the CFA, and to call the parties to resume negotiation without further delay.

• We call upon the Sri Lanka government to invite the Norwegian facilitators immediately to Sri Lanka to resume negotiations,
• We demand that the meeting to discuss the CFA be resumed immediately,
• We urge the military on both sides to use the assistance of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) to meet and discuss ways to reduce violence, and
• We demand that a mechanism is immediately created to ensure relief and rehabilitation to the North and East.

   

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