Sri Lanka's joint opposition wants India as sea monitor

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 April 2003, 18:01 GMT]
Mr.Lakshman Kadirgamar, Sri Lanka's former foreign Minister and advisor to President Ms Chandrika Kumaratunge, presiding over a press conference held Friday said that India and two other countries should be included as Naval monitors under the present ceasefire agreement. The joint opposition leaders also warned that the United States and United Kingdom are conspiring to destabilize India, political sources in Colombo said.

Mr. Kadirgamar further said the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) should not attempt to undermine the sovereignty of the Sri Lanka and India by asking the Government of Sri Lanka to recognize the Sea Tigers to operate in Sri Lankan waters.

The Norwegian monitors are heavily biased towards the LTTE and the people of the country have lost confidence on the head of the SLMM, Mr.Kadirgamar charged.

The SLMM should change its present approach and if not it could pose a threat not only to the sovereignty of Sri Lanka but also to India as well, warned Mr.Kadirgamar.

A former minister Mr.Nimal Sripala de Silva said that the reasons given by the LTTE for the pull out of the current peace talks cannot be accepted. He asked the United National Front(UNF) government to take all precautionary measures to strengthen the security of the country.

He said the pull out of the peace talks is aimed by the LTTE to get maximum benefits from the UNF government to achieve its ends such as removal of high security zones from the northeast and to get recognition to sea tigers.

Peoples Alliance spokesman and former Minister Mr.Sarath Amunugama said that it is high time for the Sri Lanka government to take immediate steps to include India and two other countries in the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission to direct the implementation of the ceasefire agreement in the right direction.

The press conference was held at the office of the Leader of Opposition.