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| Saturday, 26 July 2003 |
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The National Peace Council (NPC) yesterday called for the re-commencement of face-to-face peace talks in order to restore public confidence in the peace process and also to ensure that the draft proposals can be developed to the mutual satisfaction of the two sides. In a news release issued yesterday, the NPC said there is heightened expectation of progress in the peace process following the Norwegian facilitator's delivery to the LTTE of the government's latest proposals regarding an interim administration for the North-East. The NPC said: "Apart from the issue of an interim administration, peace talks also need to address other issues relating to the peace process. These include the pressing concerns of the people regarding the resettlement of internally displaced persons in the high security zones and other areas, political assassinations and the inability of people to economically benefit from the peace dividend. "The re-arming, re-deployment and re-training of government and LTTE military forces have been a cause for concern of both parties as well as the general public. The government and LTTE should not postpone addressing these problems as they become harder to resolve with time and further undermine the high expectations that people have had in the peace process. "The dispute that has arisen over the LTTE's newly established camp in Kinniya is one that should be settled immediately as its continuation undermines confidence in the mechanisms established under the ceasefire agreement. Both sides accepted the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission as the arbiter of the agreement. We call on the LTTE to abide by the decision of the international monitors regarding the dismantling of their new camp in Kinniya. "The NPC also calls on the government to address the problem of the continuing exclusion of the President and Opposition from the peace process. A bipartisan political approach that involves the President and main opposition party is indispensable for progress to be made in the direction of such a federal solution. We believe that the proposed interim structures need to be genuinely federal in character if they are to be a platform to the final political solution. They need to contain structures for power sharing between the centre and North-East region and accountability to standards of human rights and good governance which are the essence of federalism. "Considering the failure of past efforts to resolve the ethnic conflict the NPC is of the view that a proper bipartisan agreement between the government and main opposition party based on an equal partnership is necessary. Therefore we urge the Prime Minister and President to jointly review the Liam Fox agreement that only requires the government to keep the opposition informed, and to reach a mutual agreement to improve on it to ensure equal participation in the peace process." |
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