Disarming paramilitaries vital for peace - Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 July 2005, 10:34 GMT]
LTTE's Political Head Mr. S. P. Thamilchelvan, after meeting with a Norwegian delegation Wednesday morning in Kilinochchi told the press that the ceasefire monitors did not bring any new message that will improve the deteriorating ground conditions in the NorthEast. He accused Colombo and the Sri Lankan armed forces for nurturing and promoting paramilitary groups in the SLA held areas of the NorthEast in violation of clause 1.8 of the CFA. "We stressed to Norwegian delegation the urgency of disarming the paramilitaries according to the terms of the CFA," Thamilchelvan told the reporters.



The Norwegian delegation comprised of Norwegian Deputy Ambassador, Oddvar Laegreid, Head of Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), Hagrup Haukland, and other Norwegian embassy and SLMM officials, sources in Vanni said.

"The responsibility of bringing the situation to normalcy lies entirely in the hands of the Government of Sri Lanka and its armed forces," Mr. Thamilchelvan told the press.

The activities of the paramilitary groups - killings of civilians and LTTE's political cadres - are taking place within the SLA occupied areas, LTTE's Political Head said.

"The paramilitaries can be effectively and immediately controlled if Colombo is seriously committed to the CFA agreement and the peace process," Mr. Thamilchelvan told the reporters.

He added that the Tigers have repeatedly pointed out to Colombo, as stipulated in the clause 1.8 of the CFA agreement, that the paramilitaries must be disarmed and vacated from the SLA occupied areas of the Tamil homeland in the North East.

"This very basic clause of the CFA agreement need to be respected in both word and deed and given due respect by Colombo and its armed forces. The killings of civilians and our unarmed political cadres in the SLA held areas must be stopped and a safe environment created for our unarmed political officials and cadres to engage in political work," he said.

"Once again, this is what we had to point out to the ceasefire monitors," Mr. Thamilchelvan told the press.

He further said that the LTTE respects and understands the concerns of the International Community and the efforts of the Norwegian facilitators in the peace process, but said the responsibility lies entirely with Colombo as it has not taken or implemented any concrete measure to implement the above mentioned clause in the Cease Fire Agreement.

"We have taken note that the International Community also has expressed this concern to Colombo", he said.

Norwegian facilitators, for the past few days, were exploring ways to bring a conducive environment on the ground and to arrange a face to face meeting between the parties, sources in Colombo said.