News from The Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to the United Nations Office at Geneva

Sri Lanka: Views on abrogation of CFA

Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka - Geneva - Switzerland

07th January 2008

Many parties have expressed appreciation on the Government’s decision to annul the Cease Fire Agreement.

A statement issued by the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna said, the abrogation of the Ceasefire Agreement proves the independence and the sovereignty of Sri Lanka as a unitary state.

The statement signed by to MEP leader and Urban Development and Sacred Area Development Minister Dinesh Gunawardena said the MEP was against it from the very inception of the agreement. Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe had also pointed out the need of having an amendment, the statement issued by the MEP added.

The Patriotic National Movement (PNM) expressed its gratitude to the Government on the above decision.

Patriotic National Movement said the Government’s decision to annul the ceasefire agreement with the LTTE was the third time the PMN was successful in getting the Government accede to its demands. The first was the scrapping of P-TOMS and other demerging North and East, the Chairman of PNM Dr. Gunadasa Amarasekara said.

“What happened by the Ceasefire Agreement was that a part of the country was handed over to the LTTE. Under the power vested by the Ceasefire agreement the LTTE could manage to establish their own structures such as the police, courts . In another word the LTTE were considered as another government under the CFA,” Dr. Amarasekara said.

“The patriotic people continuously pointed out the danger of the CFA even before it was signed between the former Premier Ranil Wickremesinghe and Vellupillai Prabhakaran on February 22 in 2002.

Meanwhile the Liberal Party believes that there is a need for an agreed or unilateral ceasefire, it feels that the 2002 Cease Fire Agreement document had been signed by the parties even without reading the contents.
The party said in a statement: “It is a well known fact that during the so called peace period, it had been constantly violated by the Liberation Tigers. Just in the aftermath of its signing, more than 60 intelligence officers sacrificed their lives before unknown LTTE gunmen and during the period concerned former Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, Deputy Secretary of the Peace Secretariat K.Loganathan and many others were gunned down by the LTTE. They also attempted the life of Army Chief Sarath Fonseka.

Liberals denounce all types of terrorism and believe that a political solution is the answer to the ongoing conflict in Sri Lanka and suggest all political parties including the political wing of the Liberation Tigers to study the Indian constitution as model for future Sri Lanka. Thus, we uphold the view that a negotiated settlement is a must and urge all stake holders to work in unison to achieve the target.” .

(Courtesy: Department of Government Information)

Published : Monday, January 07, 2008 11:41:51 AM (Geneva time)

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