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| Sri Lanka |
| No talks with LTTE unless it eschews violence: Rajapaksa |
| 2008-09-25 |
| (PTI) Sri Lanka today said it would not hold negotiations with the "illegal armed terrorist group" LTTE unless it eschews violence and accused the Tamil rebels of pulling out of earlier rounds of talks on "flimsiest of excuses". Addressing the 192-member UN General Assembly, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa also said the government has always been ready to effectively implement political and constitutional solutions to meet aspirations of minorities. "What the government would not, and could not, do is to let an illegal and armed terrorist group, LTTE, to hold a fraction of our population, a part of Tamil community, hostage to such terror in the northern part of Sri Lanka and deny those people their democratic rights of dissent and free election," he said. Rajapaksa charged the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a "malicious group," of turning the harmony between the Sinhalese and the Tamils "upside down" and walking out of talks on "flimsiest of excuses." All successive Sri Lankan governments, he said, had edeavoured to resolve the problem for more than 25 years through Norwegian and international co-chairs overseeing the peace process but the rebels treated it with "contempt". "On each occasion that talks were held seeking peace, the terrorists of LTTE walked out on the flimsiest of excuses and reverted to terrorism of the worst kind, indiscriminately targeting innocent civilians," he added. |
| Posted by:Fred |