LTTE leader compliments Norway for historic peace agreement

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 March 2002, 15:10 GMT]
Mr Vellupillai Pirapaharan, leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Wednesday hailed the truce agreement between the Sri Lanka government and the Tamil Tigers as a historical achievement that laid a strong foundation for the peace process and negotiated political settlement. The LTTE leader praised the Norwegian facilitators for their sincere and untiring effort to bring peace in the island when he met the head of the Norwegian monitoring mission, the retired Norwegian army general Trond Furuhovede in Killinochci, northern Sri Lanka Wednesday evening.

Mr Svein Myklebust, another member of the monitoring team and Tomas Stangeland, an official of the Norwegian Embassy in Colombo were also present at the meeting. Mr Tamilenthi a senior leader of the LTTE, Mr Tamilselvan, head of the political section and Mr Pulidevan of the political department also participated in an hour long dialogue.

Mr Pirapaharan urged the Nordic cease-fire monitors to speed up the opening of the A9 highway to Jaffna that would help to facilitate the free movement of the Jaffna civilian population and ease their hardships in travelling. The Tiger leader also requested the monitors to assist the massive project undertaken by the LTTE to de-mine Vanni region that would help the resettlement and rehabilitation of the displaced Tamils.

The monitors are staying overnight in Mallavi. Mr Furuhove and his party will pay a visit to Elephant Pass Thursday morning and inspect the de-mining project undertaken by the LTTE in that locality. They will be flying back to Colombo from Killinochchi by a Sri Lankan Airforce helicopter Thursday evening.