Sri Lankan Tamil Rebel Leader Meets Truce Monitor

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, March 07, 2002

Sri Lankan Tamil Rebel Leader Meets Truce Monitor

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Norwegian head of monitoring mission overseeing truce in Sri Lanka Trond Furuhovde has met separatist Tamil Tiger rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran in the north of the country in preparation for monitoring an indefinite ceasefire between the two sides under a truce agreement, according to local media Thursday.

Furuhovde together with another member of the monitoring team and Tomas Stangeland, an official of the Norwegian Embassy in Colombo held talks with the Tamil rebel leader at Kilinochchi, the rebel-controlled northern town on Wednesday evening. Three other leaders of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were also present at the meeting.

During the one-hour meeting, Prabhakaran said that the truce agreement between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil rebels is a historical achievement that lays a strong foundation for the peace process and negotiated political settlement to the country's long-running ethnic conflict.

Prabhakaran urged the monitors to speed up the opening of a key highway connecting the south of the country with northern Jaffna peninsula to civilian traffic and to help rebels to de-mine the battle-ravaged Vanni region to enable the resettlement and rehabilitation of civilians.

The monitors will pay a visit to rebel-controlled Elephant Pass leading to Jaffna on Thursday and inspect the de-mining project undertaken by the LTTE there before they fly back to Colombo from Killinochchi by a Sri Lankan airforce helicopter on Thursday evening.

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