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Sri Lanka Denies Lifting Ban on Tamil Rebels
Sri Lankan government on Tuesday denied local media report that President Chandrika Kumaratunga has suggested to the main opposition United National Party leader Ranil Wickremesinghe that the ban on separatist Tamil Tiger rebels be lifted in a bid to revive stalled peace process in her war-torn country.
"The president explained at length and in detail, the reasons which made it difficult and unwise for the government to lift the ban on the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam)," the Presidential Secretariat said in a statement.
"It was the leader of the opposition who proposed to the president that she should consider the lifting of the ban on the LTTE." it added.
Kumaratunga and Wickremesinghe had a closed-door meeting on Friday. Their discussion focused on the status of peace process under Norwegian facilitation.
Peace process in the country has been deadlocked over a rebel demand to lift the 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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