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Sri Lankan Catholic Bishop Group Denies Statement on Peace
The Catholic Bishops Conference of Sri Lanka denied on Tuesday that the statement made by two bishops, who are currently on a European tour, in London, on the country's 18-year ethnic crisis were their views, The Island newspaper said on Wednesday.
President of the organization Bishop Oswald Gomis said that they had been trying to get a verification from the two bishops who are currently on a Europe but have been unsuccessful in contacting them.
The two bishops Malcom Ranjit and Rayappu Joseph had reportedly said that the Sri Lankan government did not seem to want a solution to the ethnic issue through negotiations but by military means.
They said in a statement that the people living in the south of the country who were mainly Sinhalese have also welcomed the peace process initiated by Norway.
But there were some extremist elements who did not want to see an end to the war and they created hurdles to the peace process, it said.
Referring to the statement, the government reiterated its commitment to a negotiated settlement to the country's ethnic conflict and asked bishops in the country to pressurize separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels to enter Norwegina- brokered peace process.
Peace process in the country is deadlocked over LTTE demand of lifting ban on the organization. The government has rejected the demand as "unreasonable".
The LTTE rebels have been fighting against government forces in the north and east of the country since 1983 for an independent Tamil homeland. The bloody war has killed some 64,000 people.
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