Sri Lanka: Rebel Disarming Issue Not to Derail Peace Process

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, December 31, 2002

Sri Lanka: Rebel Disarming Issue Not to Derail Peace Process

The Sri Lankan government said Monday that the current Norwegian-brokered peace process will not be derailed by the issue of disarming separatist Tamil Tiger rebels.

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The Sri Lankan government said Monday that the current Norwegian-brokered peace process will not be derailed by the issue of disarming separatist Tamil Tiger rebels.

"The so-called high-security zone matter is not the end of the peace process, as some persons feel," Foreign Minister Tyronne Fernando told a meeting in a Colombo suburb.

"We must be happy that such crucial issues are now being discussed in a peaceful manner," he said.

"Today it is clear to the entire world that both parties are committed to peaceful political negotiations and would not resort to violence," Fernando said.

However, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam LTTE) rebels issued a new warning Monday that the army's hard-line attitude toward the issue of so-called high security zone in the northern Jaffna peninsula is unacceptable.

"Detailed discussion on core issues cannot be undertaken when hundreds of thousands of Tamil people remain unable to return to their homes," Anton Balasingham, the LTTE chief negotiator was quoted as saying by TamilNet website on Monday.

He said that the resettlement of displaced Tamil people and thenormalization of conditions in their areas of residence will be the main issues to be taken up at the fourth round of peace talks between the LTTE and the government in Thailand early next month.

In a statement issued on Thursday, the LTTE rebels rejected as "unacceptable and unrealistic" government forces' demand for disarming them in return for the army withdrawal from the so-called high security zones in northern Jaffna peninsula.

During the last three rounds of peace talks between the two sides since mid September, the LTTE rebels have dropped their demand for a separate Tamil homeland in the north and east and agreed to settle for regional autonomy under a federal system within one country.

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