‘Peace process back on track’ claims Professor Peiris 

[April 30, 2003 - 10.00 GMT]

The Government said today that it was happy the peace process was back on track, with the positive re-opening of the line of communication between the LTTE and the Norwegians.

Government spokesman Prof. G.L. Peiris told a news briefing in Colombo that the Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe had replied LTTE chief negotiator Anton Balasingham, with the regard to the Government’s response to his letter suspending the talks.

Peiris further said that a variety of developments had occurred, all of which were positive and would help put the talks back on track. “The outlook is promising because the deadlock has been broken”, he said.

He explained that plans for the Tokyo donor conference to be held June this year were still under way; stressing the conference would benefit Sri Lanka as a whole. He said the Government was hopeful of the participation of the LTTE as bilateral involvement would be advantageous to both, because focus would be on the northeast.

Peiris said however the LTTE had not given any assurances as to their presence in Tokyo.

Responding to query, as to whether the shifting of the High Security Zones (HSZ) in Jaffna, was a direct fall-out of the LTTE’s withdrawal from the peace talks, Peiris said it was not so. He said that it was a decision made sometime back by the Army to facilitate ordinary civilian life.

“Displaced persons are a problem. Resettlement is voluntary and so conditions have to be good for people to want to come back. The HSZs were disrupting normal civilian activities. It was restricting access to the hospital”, said Peiris.

He stressed however that this was not a withdrawal but a simple re-location and that it would not cause problems to security interests.

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Last Updated Date: April 30, 2003  - 10.00 GMT.