Sri Lankan Private Bus Operators to Meet Tamil Rebel Leader

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, April 24, 2002

Sri Lankan Private Bus Operators to Meet Tamil Rebel Leader

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Representatives of Sri Lanka Private Bus Operators Association (PBOA) will meet separatist Tamil Tiger rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran on Wednesday to discuss plying their buses on a main highway connecting the country's southern city of Kandy and northern Jaffna peninsula.

The Island newspaper said that Secretary of the PBOA Gemunu Wijeratne expressed hope that consensus will be reached on the issue. They were ready to pay a fee to enter areas controlled by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels.

They will also suggest that the rebels could enter into partnership with bus owners in the south to operate public transport on their route, or the rebels could float their own bus companies.

Wijeratne said the main issue was to run buses directly form capital Colombo to Jaffna without interruption. They would not consider any suggestion that envisages commuters getting off to travel the rebel-controlled stretch of the road in rebel-owned buses.

In accordance with an indefinite ceasefire agreement signed by the government and the LTTE rebels, the A-9 highway was opened to civilian traffic earlier this month, but the issue of the bus transportation has yet to be solved.

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