UNF rejects President's accusation on truce signing

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 February 2002, 17:08 GMT]
The United National Front (UNF) government Saturday rejected the accusations made by the Presidential Secretariat on the cease-fire agreement signed between the government and the Liberation Tigers were entirely incorrect. The Presidential Secretariat Friday blamed the UNF government that it signed the Memorandum of Understanding without informing the Cabinet.

UNF media spokesman and a senior minister Mr.G.L. Peiris said that "the Prime Minister briefed the Cabinet about the provisions of the MoU on Wednesday and Thursday. The Cabinet approved the draft MoU on Wednesday. It was unfortunate that President Chandrika Kumaratunge was not present on that day."

Mr.Peiris added that the Prime Minister together with the several ministers held discussions with members of Maha Sangha and Editors of newspapers on Thursday. Therefore the statement by the Presidential Secretariat on this issue was completely incorrect.

Meanwhile the Prime Minister Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe visited Trincomalee and Batticaloa on his return trip to Colombo from Vavuniya, after signing the historic ceasefire agreement with the LTTE on Friday morning.

The Prime Minister spent the Friday night at the Naval House in Trincomalee Naval Headquarters. Accompanied by Ministers Mr.Tilak Marapone and Dr.Jayalath Jayawardene, the Prime Minister met naval personnel, who were in the clashes off the coast of Mullaithivu.

The chiefs of the three armed forces too accompanied the Prime Minister. Addressing naval personnel the Prime Minister said that the President was informed from time to time on all issues pertaining to the ceasefire agreement.

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