Fully committed to peace, says LTTE 

[February 28, 2003 - 11.00 GMT]

A nine-member delegation of the Catholic Bishop’s Conference who visited the North to look into the welfare of the people, met the leader of the LTTE’s political wing S.P. Thamilchelvam in Kilinochchi on Tuesday.

The delegation, which included the Archbishop of Colombo, was on a “goodwill mission” to the North, especially to the dioceses of Jaffna and Mannar.

“In answer to a direct question raised by the Bishops the Political Leader asured that they were fully comitted to a negotiated settlement and would pursue the path of peace until a political solution was reached,” a press release issued by the Archbishop’s House in Colombo said.

The conscription of child soldiers, import of arms, the detention of a soldier and a police costable and the observance of hartal on the occasion of the first aniversary celebration of the MOU had been among the main points in the discussion between the Bishops and the LTTE.

“They explained that the hartal was not a protest against the peace process nor an attempt to sabotage it, but was meant to give this message to the south of the dissatisfaction about the lack of normalcy yet, in the North,” the release stated.

The LTTE Leadership had expressed satisfaction with the present peace process and been hopeful it would help bring peace to the country.

However, the LTTE’s credibility in the peace process has been seriously called into question after they back-tracked on a commitment made to the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission to release a Soldier and a Police Constable in return for the release of seven armed LTTE cadres recently. The LTTE’s about-turn came after they secured the release of the LTTE cadres through the intervention of the SLMM.

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Last Updated Date: February 28, 2003  - 11.00 GMT.