Sri Lanka peace delegation head meets JHU leadership

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 March 2006, 00:39 GMT]
Mr.Nimal Sripala de Silva, senior minister and the leader of the Sri Lanka Government peace delegation Thursday evening met with Mr.Champika Ranawake, Secretary of the Policy Formulation of Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) to clarify the outcome of the Geneva peace talks with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) held last month and also to urge JHU to soften the criticism against the government for accepting the ceasefire agreement, political sources said.

The meeting between Mr. Sripala de Silva and Mr. Ranawake took place on the instruction of Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse before the scheduled all-party conference fixed for Monday 6th, political sources said.

The leadership of the JHU has claimed that the Geneva peace talks was a defeat for the government, and requested the government not to mislead the people by misrepresenting the facts over the 'amendments' to the ceasefire agreement, sources said.

Mr. Ranawake at a press briefing lashed out at the government that it was ludicrous to claim that there were amendments to the CFA since nothing new was added or changed in the agreement, sources said.