Peace talks in Geneva – agreement reached

[January 25, 2006 - 10.00 GMT]

The LTTE has agreed to the resumption of peace talks with the Government of Sri Lanka, and that first round of resumed talks will be held at Geneva in Switzerland.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa revealed this when he received a message about the decision while hosting publishers and editors of Tamil newspapers for lunch at the Presidential Secretariat today (25).

The Government’s Peace Secretariat informed the President of the decision.

It is believed the decision was reached after Norwegian Special Peace Envoy Erik Solheim met with LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and other LTTE leaders in the North today.

Mr. Solheim had lengthy discussions with President Rajapaksa yesterday (24) when the President explained the need to have early talks with the LTTE, in an attempt to stop the increasing violence in the North & East in the past two months, and resume negotiations for a settlement of the ethnic issue.

Earlier, the All Party Conference summoned by the President to seek consensus on a negotiating position with the LTTE, urged him to give first priority to the resumption of talks with the LTTE.

The previous UNP Government and LTTE signed a Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) in February 2002. Since then the CFA has been in place, but observed largely in its breach by the LTTE, which used the advantages gained by the CFA to strengthen its position in government held areas.

Talks between the Government and LTTE that began in September 2002 were unilaterally stopped by the LTTE in April 2003, after four rounds of talks that did not make much progress.

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Last Updated Date: January 25, 2005 - 10.00 GMT