Archives

LTTE confirms participation : Hakone talks to go ahead

by Ranil Wijayapala

The LTTE has confirmed their participation at the Hakone talks to Norwegian Deputy Foreign Minister Vidar Helgesen in Colombo ending the uncertainty that followed the LTTE's threat to boycott the talks in protest of the sinking of their vessel by the Navy on Monday.

"We were in contact with the LTTE from Thursday and they have confirmed their participation at the talks," Deputy Minister Helgesen told the Daily News last night following his lecture at the Sri Lanka Institute for International Relations in Colombo.

The Norwegian Deputy Minister said the incident will be extensively discussed when the two parties meet at Hakone as such incidents pose a major threat to the continuation of the ceasefire agreement.

"The two parties should reach a final mechanism for handling problems at sea," the Deputy Minister said.

"We have informed both parties that they should respect the ceasefire agreement and also the rulings of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission. We have also informed that the security of truce monitors should not be ignored at any cost."

The Deputy Minister recalled the incident in the sea off Delft island where three LTTE cadres blew up their boat, risking the lives of two truce monitors.

Mechanisms with regard to the safety of the truce monitors should also be discussed with both parties, he added.

The sixth round of peace talks is scheduled to held in Hakone, Japan from March 18 to 21. A six member delegation from the LTTE is due to fly to Tokyo on Monday from Colombo.

Meanwhile, SLMM teams investigating the Mullaitivu incident yesterday inspected the "Sayura" surveillance craft which engaged the LTTE ship in the sea off Mullaitivu, at the Naval Base in Colombo.

SLMM Spokesman Teitur Torkelsson told the Daily News that the SLMM teams inspected the damage caused to the ship by LTTE guns.

"We watched the brief video tape of the Navy regarding the incident and asked for the full video tape to come to a conclusion over the issue," Torkelsson added.

The SLMM expects to reach a conclusion over the incident before the commencement of next round of talks in Hakone.

"We might be able to give a ruling over the issue before the talks start but there are difficulties in giving a ruling since we were not there at the time of the incident," Torkelsson added.

News | Business | Features | Editorial | Security
Politics | World | Letters | Sports | Obituaries |

Produced by Lake House
Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
Comments and suggestions to :Web Manager