Urge President too, suggests British HC

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 January 2001, 22:11 GMT]
Britain welcomes the unilateral cease-fire by the Liberation Tigers as a positive move in the right direction towards finding a negotiated political solution to Sri Lanka's ethnic problem, the British High Commissioner in Sri Lanka, Ms Linda Duffield, told a delegation of Tamil political parties that met her Wednesday in Colombo. The Tamil parties urged the British HC to exert pressure on the Sri Lankan Government to positively respond to the cease-fire unilaterally declared by the Liberation Tigers as a goodwill measure last month.

Several Tamil parties, including the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), the All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACT), the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation along with some senior Tamil politicians from the opposition began a campaign earlier this month to lobby India and the missions of western countries in Colombo with a view to bringing about external pressure on the Sri Lankan government to accept the cease-fire offer of the Liberation Tigers and to start negotiations aimed at resolving the conflict in the island.

The UK High Commissioner told the delegation that the Tamil parties also should exert pressure on the Sri Lankan President and the Leader of the Opposition in this regard. She said that her government welcomed the LTTE offer, while noting that the modality of the unilateral cease-fire call was not in order. She told the Tamil politicians that UK felt both warring parties should be encouraged to come to an understanding in this regard.

Parliamentarians Appalpillai Vinayaganmoorthy (ACTC), M.S.Sellasamy, S. Chandrasekaran (United National Party) and Jaffna Mayor, N.Raviraj (TULF) were among the members of the delegation that met the UK High Commissioner today.

Tamil party representatives are scheduled to meet the High Commissioner of India on Friday to discuss this issue.