Sri Lanka religious leaders urge government and rebels to talk

-31/05/06

Buddhist, Cath


Sri Lanka religious leaders urge government and rebels to talk

-31/05/06

Buddhist, Catholic and Protestant community representatives have met both with a leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelan (LTTE) and with Sri Lanka’s president in a move designed to encourage them to resume peace talks and end civilian deaths.

On May 27 the LTTE agreed to continue talks with the Sri Lankan government in Oslo, Norway, on 8-9 June 2006. But the situation remains precarious.

The European Parliament recently proposed banning the group. However religious leaders say dialogue is the only way forward.

Three Buddhist monks, a Methodist minister, a Catholic priest and a lay leader from Caritas Sri Lanka, the church social-action organization, talked last week with S.P. Thamilchelvan, head of the LTTE’s political wing, sources in Sri Lanka have confirmed.

The religious leaders, from the south of the country, travelled to Kilinochchi, 280 kilometers north of the capital Colombo, to urge Thamilchelvan to work toward restoring lasting order in the country, says UCA News.

The LTTE launched an armed struggle against the government in 1983 to establish a separate Tamil state in northern and eastern Sri Lanka, claiming systematic discrimination by the ethnic Sinhalese majority, more than 70 percent of Sri Lanka’s population.

The civil war has left up to 80,000 people dead and a million more displaced before the rebels and the government signed a cease-fire agreement in February 2002.

Peace talks following the cease-fire ended when the LTTE pulled out of them in mid-2003. They resumed this year with a round of negotiations in February, but the LTTE again withdrew ahead of further talks scheduled for April.

A dramatic increase in bombings and other attacks which have killed military personnel and civilians have been blamed on the rebels.

Sri Lanka’s military have responded with shelling and assaults against insurgents which have resulted in civilian casualties and destruction. Fear of a return to war has grown alongside the violence.

Buddhist leader the Venerable Samitha told UCA News, “When we described to the LTTE the present situation and the killings, they said, ‘If you want a peaceful situation, then the government would have to win the confidence of the people in the north and the east. Therefore the government would have to adhere to the conditions that were laid out in the cease-fire agreement.'”

The monk said Thamilchelvan protested strongly against army “occupation” of lands that he said belonged to Tamils. “Because of this situation,” the LTTE leader told the southern group, “people are displaced.”

The army has established High Security Zones in predominantly Tamil areas, which local people say include their homes and schools.

“Thamilchelvan said that if the government is able to withdraw troops from those lands and places, it will win the confidence of people. And his request was that until normalcy returns to their lands, there is no point in having further peace talks,” Samitha reported.

The rebel leader, he continued, asked the delegation to convey a message to the government and civilians in the south: “We are interested in peace. We are not interested in war, and we know the destruction and difficulties of people living in the north and south. Therefore the government will have to take the necessary steps.”

The inter-religious group also met with the president a week before the LTTE encounter, before heading north. According to Father Fernando, the president stated at that first meeting that he wanted peace and not war. “The only thing is he wanted to know what the main concerns of the LTTE are. And he said that he would like to have direct talks with the LTTE leader without a mediator,” the Caritas director said.

Caritas, an established Catholic agency, is known in Sri Lanka as the Social and Economic Development Centre (SEDEC).
[With grateful acknowledgements to the Union of Catholic Asian News (UCA News), the world’s largest Asian church news agency]


Sri Lanka religious leaders urge government and rebels to talk

-31/05/06

Buddhist, Catholic and Protestant community representatives have met both with a leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelan (LTTE) and with Sri Lanka’s president in a move designed to encourage them to resume peace talks and end civilian deaths.

On May 27 the LTTE agreed to continue talks with the Sri Lankan government in Oslo, Norway, on 8-9 June 2006. But the situation remains precarious.

The European Parliament recently proposed banning the group. However religious leaders say dialogue is the only way forward.

Three Buddhist monks, a Methodist minister, a Catholic priest and a lay leader from Caritas Sri Lanka, the church social-action organization, talked last week with S.P. Thamilchelvan, head of the LTTE’s political wing, sources in Sri Lanka have confirmed.

The religious leaders, from the south of the country, travelled to Kilinochchi, 280 kilometers north of the capital Colombo, to urge Thamilchelvan to work toward restoring lasting order in the country, says UCA News.

The LTTE launched an armed struggle against the government in 1983 to establish a separate Tamil state in northern and eastern Sri Lanka, claiming systematic discrimination by the ethnic Sinhalese majority, more than 70 percent of Sri Lanka’s population.

The civil war has left up to 80,000 people dead and a million more displaced before the rebels and the government signed a cease-fire agreement in February 2002.

Peace talks following the cease-fire ended when the LTTE pulled out of them in mid-2003. They resumed this year with a round of negotiations in February, but the LTTE again withdrew ahead of further talks scheduled for April.

A dramatic increase in bombings and other attacks which have killed military personnel and civilians have been blamed on the rebels.

Sri Lanka’s military have responded with shelling and assaults against insurgents which have resulted in civilian casualties and destruction. Fear of a return to war has grown alongside the violence.

Buddhist leader the Venerable Samitha told UCA News, “When we described to the LTTE the present situation and the killings, they said, ‘If you want a peaceful situation, then the government would have to win the confidence of the people in the north and the east. Therefore the government would have to adhere to the conditions that were laid out in the cease-fire agreement.'”

The monk said Thamilchelvan protested strongly against army “occupation” of lands that he said belonged to Tamils. “Because of this situation,” the LTTE leader told the southern group, “people are displaced.”

The army has established High Security Zones in predominantly Tamil areas, which local people say include their homes and schools.

“Thamilchelvan said that if the government is able to withdraw troops from those lands and places, it will win the confidence of people. And his request was that until normalcy returns to their lands, there is no point in having further peace talks,” Samitha reported.

The rebel leader, he continued, asked the delegation to convey a message to the government and civilians in the south: “We are interested in peace. We are not interested in war, and we know the destruction and difficulties of people living in the north and south. Therefore the government will have to take the necessary steps.”

The inter-religious group also met with the president a week before the LTTE encounter, before heading north. According to Father Fernando, the president stated at that first meeting that he wanted peace and not war. “The only thing is he wanted to know what the main concerns of the LTTE are. And he said that he would like to have direct talks with the LTTE leader without a mediator,” the Caritas director said.

Caritas, an established Catholic agency, is known in Sri Lanka as the Social and Economic Development Centre (SEDEC).
[With grateful acknowledgements to the Union of Catholic Asian News (UCA News), the world’s largest Asian church news agency]