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Norway reiterates support for Sri Lankan peace process

Feb 22, 2007, 7:15 GMT

Colombo - The Norwegian government expressed willingness Thursday to continue to support Sri Lanka's peace process amidst calls by a Marxist party and a group of Buddhist monks to abrogate the five-year-old Cease-Fire Agreement (CFA) with Tamil rebels. The Marxist JVP (People's Liberation Front) put up posters island-wide and were due to hold a protest rally in Colombo later in the day against the truce agreement. A group of Buddhist monks who are already on a continuous protest campaign have vowed to step up their campaign if President Mahinda Rajapaksa does not withdraw from the CFA. Norway's International Development Cooperation Minister Erik Solheim, who played a key role as Oslo's peace envoy when the truce agreement was implemented, Thursday expressed hope that the rebels and the Sri Lankan government 'will recognize the need to secure the full implementation of the CFA as a first step toward reaching a political solution.' Violence between Tamil rebels and government forces has escalated since December 2005 after rebels carried out a series of attacks on the security forces, prompting them to retaliate and eventually leading to major offensive military operations in rebel-controlled areas. Military officials claim that all of them have been defensive operations as rebels were carrying out attacks on civilians as well as the military. Solheim, in a statement marking the fifth anniversary of the truce agreement, said it was 'a tremendously positive development for Sri Lanka' and said the pact between the two sides in 2002 brought an immediate stop to 20 years of fighting and the economy and tourism picked up rapidly. 'The Ceasefire Agreement also allowed the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) to begin negotiations on a political solution to the conflict,' said Solheim. But the pact was followed by a cycle of violence, he said. 'One killing was followed by another, and the violence escalated. The problem started when the parties decided not to implement the agreement into which they themselves had entered,' Solheim said. 'Massive human rights abuses, grave humanitarian suffering and the displacement of over 200,000 people are among the results. It is the responsibility of the parties to put a stop to this and to demonstrate the political will to reach a lasting settlement.' The significance of the agreement has been fast declining over the past year after Tamil rebels and the government entered into full-scale offensives, though in the first few years the truce was closely honored by both the Tamil rebels and the government. Ven Dambara Amila, a Buddhist monk leading a protest campaign opposite a public park in Colombo, denounced the pact as harmful to the Singhalese majority. 'The agreement, which has been very favourable to the Tamil Tigers, should be abrogated before it enters the sixth year,' he said. 'We have lost faith in the LTTE that they are following the CFA. They are not genuine and keep on violating the truce, forcing us to retaliate,' chief military spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe said. Tamil rebels, meanwhile, have accused the government of violating the CFA. The number of Scandinavians monitoring the truce agreement in the north and east has dropped from 60 to only 35, with members from three Scandinavian countries in the EU - Sweden, Denmark and Finland - withdrawing members in September last year following a ban imposed by the EU on the LTTE in May, 2006. Tamil rebels insisted that the three countries withdraw their representatives from the monitoring team known as the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) and thereby the monitors were depleted, forcing them to reorganize themselves and carry on with less members. 'Under the Cease-Fire Agreement the government has to guarantee the security of the monitors,' declared defence spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella after monitors were not allowed into an area where the security forces had conducted one of their military operations in the eastern province. President Mahinda Rajapaksa was elected to power in November, 2005 with the promise that he would review the CFA and make certain modifications, but heavily influenced by the Marxists who helped him into power, no changes have been made and the rebels and the government are far apart. During the past 14 months at least 3,200 persons have been killed, mainly in the north and eastern parts of the country, and peace talks have been at a standstill since September last year. © 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

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LingawardanaFeb 22nd, 2007 - 19:06:04

Sri Lankan Singhala Bhuddist monks bring shame to all true Bhuddists around the world.

Singhala government has been 'signing' deals with Tamils since 1952 and keep on backstabbing them.

Latest peace deal meant nothing because the Sri Lankan Singhala government will never give autonomy to Tamils. Even if they did the Singhala chauvenist party JVP and the so called peaceful 'Monks' party will go against them.

Sri Lankan Singhala Bhuddist monks are extremists. They have assasinated Presidents(Dudley Bandaranaike) in the past.

It's been 5 years and nothing happened to Tamils. There were no Tsunami reconstruction in the Tamil areas and over 5000 Tamil civilians got killed by the Sri Lankan Singhala military!

Only solution, Tamils getting their freedom with or without the International communty's support!

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PakkaiyappaFeb 22nd, 2007 - 19:08:00

Linga, don't forget that these Singhala Bhuddist monks absolutely hates and have no tolerant for Christians or Muslims!

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JothyFeb 22nd, 2007 - 20:15:09

Sri Lanka is a failed state. UN must send its forces to protect the minority Tamil civilians from the Singhala state terrorists.

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Get your facts right!Feb 22nd, 2007 - 22:44:50

Hey, just remember that it's the LTTE that wants to have it's own racist state!

The LTTE are the ones that want to remove all the sinhalese and muslims from all the areas that their call their 'homeland'!

It's the LTTE that are the extremist and are racist because they want an exclusive state for themselves!

In the rest of the country, tamils, muslims and singhalese live in peace, and it doesn't matter if you are buddhist, hindu or christan...

It's only the LTTE that want to have one race on the land, and are fighting and killing people for the cause! They are the extremist and the racist!

Get your facts right!

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