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Sri Lankan President Ready for Talks With Tamil Rebels
Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga said on Sunday that she was prepared for direct talks with separatist Tamil Tiger rebels but insisted that military offensive against the rebels would not stop.
Speaking at the 13th national convention of the Sri Lankan Freedom Party (SLFP), a flagship party of the ruling People's Alliance, she said that the public was tired of the long-running ethnic war and wanted peace.
Kumaratunga, who was unanimously reelected as president of the SLFP, also said that her willingness to talk to Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels would not be overshadowed by the fact that she survived an assassination attempt by them during presidential election campaign in December 1999.
Some 100,000 SLFP party members and delegates from various countries including China, India and Malaysia attended the convention. I
Foreign Minister Lashman Kadirgamar urged the LTTE rebels on Friday to remain in the Norwegian-brokered peace process despite the British banning of them as a "foreign terrorist organization" under its new anti-terrorism law which went into effect on February 19.
The LTTE rebels extended their unilateral ceasefire which started last December for a second time till March 24 and requested the government to reciprocate their truce offer.
The LTTE rebels have been fighting against government forces since 1983 in the north and east of the country for a separate Tamil state. More than 60,000 people have been killed in the bloody war.
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