Jaffna to hold peace sports festival in September

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 June 2003, 10:43 GMT]
At a conference held Monday at the Jaffna district secretariat it was agreed to hold the second North-South peace sports festival in Jaffna peninsula on September 4, 5 and 6, provincial sports ministry sources said.

Minister of Lands Mr.Rajitha Senaratne presided over the conference.

Mr. Senaratne said Tamils of the country should also enjoy the rights and privileges now being enjoyed by the majority Sinhalese. The government led by Prime Minister Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe is very firm in its commitment to achieve permanent settlement to the ethnic struggle in the country through negotiations and not by war, sources said

The government agents of Jaffna, Killinochchi and Vavuniya, Jaffna district parliamentarians Mr. Mavai Senathirajah, Mr.M.K.Sivajilingam and Minister Mr. T.Maheswaran also participated at the meeting, secretariat sources said.

"My government is not prepared to bomb Jaffna anymore. We will not make the mistakes the earlier governments had committed in the country," said Minister Mr.Rajitha Senaratne.

The first North-South peace sports festival was held last year at Kalutara, the hometown of Minister Mr.Rajitha Senaratne, sources said.

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