By Xinhua
Colombo : The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), fighting for a Tamil homeland in Sri Lanka, has urged Norway to continue its efforts for the peace process in the island even as the government has announced unilateral withdrawal from the Norwegian-brokered 2002 ceasefire agreement.
B. Nadesan, the political head of the LTTE, Thursday handed over a signed statement to Lars Johan Solvberg, head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) in Killinochchi, urging the mission to continue facilitating the peace process.
The statement said: “LTTE wishes to state that even at this juncture, it is ready to implement every clause of the ceasefire agreement and respect it 100 percent. We also request that Norway should continue with its facilitation role with the support of the international community.”
The statement also urged the international community to “remove the ban it placed on the LTTE” and “recognise the right of the Tamil people to live with self-determination in their homeland”.
The Peace Secretariat of the LTTE said a similar signed statement was given to the Norwegian foreign ministry through the SLMM, which is winding up its operation in the island Jan 16.
The Sri Lankan government’s decision on Jan 2 to unilaterally withdraw from the ceasefire agreement followed an attack by suspected LTTE rebels on an army bus in Colombo killing four people and injuring 24.
Both the government and the LTTE have accused each other of violating the ceasefire, which came into force Feb 22, 2002.
The government and LTTE held eight rounds of talks after signing the ceasefire agreement, but failed to find a political solution to the island’s ethnic conflict.
Claiming discrimination at the hands of the Sinhala majority, the LTTE has been fighting the government since mid-1980s to establish a separate homeland for the minority Tamils in the north and east.