NAP calls for cease-fire

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 August 1999, 14:22 GMT]
The National Alliance for Peace (NAP), a group of NGOs, religious leaders and academics, called on the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers today to observe a three day cease-fire from August 27 to 29.

The NAP and its constituent groups will hold a seminar, organise a signature campaign and have a peace march in Colombo during the three days.

This was revealed at a press conference called by the NAP this morning in Colombo.

Prof. Tissa Vitharana, the president of the NAP, Mr.Eliyathambi Nadarajah, Andrew Samaratunga, Kingsley Rodrigo and a Buddhist priest were present at the press briefing today.

Prof.Tissa Vitharana said that the NAP will hold a seminar and the Bandaranaike Memorial International Hall (BMICH) to press the government to implement its devolution proposals.

Answering a question from a journalist whether the Liberation Tigers would come for talks at all, Prof.Tissa Vitharana said that proposals have to be offered to the LTTE after a consensus on them is reached between the United National Party and the government.

Mr.E. Nadarajah said that public opinion should be mobilised in such a way that all political parties and the government will have to do something to find a solution as in the case of the Vietnam war.

The NAP will go on a campaign to collect five hundred thousand signatures from the public to make its case on August 28. A spokesman said that the organisation has already collected seventy five thousand.

The next day (August 29) the Sarvodaya, one of the largest local NGOs in Sri Lanka, will organise a peace march in Colombo the NAP spokesman said. It will be led by the leader of the Sarvodaya A.T Ariyaratna he added.

The NAP chairman, Prof.Tissa Vitharana, is the advisor to the Ministry of Science and Technology. He is the son in law of the late Trotskyite leader Dr.N.M Perera.