UNP will not support UPFA sham peace effort -Peiris

[TamilNet, Thursday, 13 May 2004, 15:25 GMT]
The main opposition United National Party (UNP) Thursday announced that it would not support the sham peace efforts of the United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government ." UPFA leaders make contradicting statements on their peace efforts. It clearly shows that they are insincere in their peace moves. Hence the UNP will not support the sham peace efforts of the UPFA government," said UNP senior leader and a former minister in the then UNF government Professor G.L.Peiris at a press briefing held Thursday in Colombo.

Mr.Peiris further said the UNP government launched the peace process accepting the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam as the sole representative of Tamils and the UPFA opposed it then. " We could note serious contradictions in the statements issued by leaders of the UPFA then and now. Now some UPFA leaders say that they recognize the LTTE as the sole representative of Tamils. UPFA is not sincere in their statements regarding the peace process," said Mr.Peiris.

"The UPFA has been forced to accept LTTE as the sole representative of Tamils. It is very difficult for the UPFA government to take forward the peace process in a constructive way with such contradictions . Therefore the UNP has decided not to support UPFA government's sham peace efforts," said Mr.Peiris.