Sri Lankan Troops Withdraw From Public Buildings in North

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, May 23, 2002

Sri Lankan Troops Withdraw From Public Buildings in North

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Sri Lanka's Secretary of the Defense Ministry said Wednesday that government troops had withdrawn from public buildings and religious sites in the country's war torn north in accordance with a Norwegian-brokered ceasefire agreement.

Secretary of the Defense Ministry Austin Fernando told reporters that the army had vacated at least 39 schools in the northern Jaffna peninsula and all but three of the religious siteshave also been vacated.

The government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels entered an indefinite truce agreement on February 22 as thefirst step of the Norwegian-brokered peace process to end the long-running ethnic conflict that has claimed over 64,000 lives since 1983.

"The best way to show that we respect the truce agreement is toabide by it," Fernando said.

He said that the government was hoping to spend 30 million Sri Lanka rupees (about 312,500 U.S. dollars) to find alternate locations for the government troops stationed in the north and east of the country.

He said that a gazette notification will be issued by Friday concerning lifting the ban on fishing in the war-torn north and east, another requirement in the ceasefire agreement signed between the two warring parties.

The government and the LTTE rebels are expected to hold peace talks in Thailand next month.

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