Government peace delegation leaves for Berlin peace talks

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 February 2003, 18:34 GMT]
The leader of the Sri Lanka Government peace delegation Minister Mr.G.L. Peiris Wednesday morning left Colombo accompanied by the Secretary to the Ministry of Defence Mr. Austin Fernando to attend the fifth round of peace talks between the GOSL and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam which is scheduled to begin Friday at Berlin in Germany. The government delegation includes Ministers Milinda Morogoda and Rauff Hakim.

"The fifth round of peace talks will focus more on political issues and the proposed Aid Summit scheduled to be held in June in Japan," said Minister Peiris before leaving to German, sources said.

We will discuss urgent humanitarian issues such as resettlement and rehabilitation of displaced at the Berlin peace talks, Minister Peiris added.

Meanwhile the Sri Lankan Ambassador in Japan Mr.K. Amunugama said Wednesday that the sixth round of peace talks will be held in Hakone, a city seventy km off the capital Tokyo on February 20 in advance to the June Aid Summit, sources said.

The United National Government Wednesday announced that it would conduct religious observances through out Sri Lanka to mark the one-year completion of the Cease-Fire Agreement signed between it and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

A senior minister in the UNF government Mr.S.B.Dissanayake said at a media briefing Wednesday in Colombo that the religious observances will be held on February 22.

A special lamp will be lit at Independence Square at Colombo the same day, Mr.Dissanayake said.