Colombo, Nov 24: Sri Lanka's new President Mahinda Rajapakse today invited political parties to hammer out a common position on reviving peace talks with Tamil Tiger
rebels, a government spokesman said.
Rajapakse has asked all political parties with
representation in Parliament to enter into a discussion with
him on a way to saving the peace process, spokesman Anura
Priyadarshana Yapa said.
The President in his election manifesto promised that
he would hold talks with all political parties within three
months to initiate a fresh discussion with Tiger rebels.
He appointed former diplomat John Gunaratne to head
the government's peace secretariat while retaining its former
head Jayantha Dhanapala as an Adviser.
It was not immediately clear how Rajapakse would
initiate a discussion given that in his manifesto, which has
the backing of Marxists as well as ultra nationalist Buddhist
monks, he promises that there will be no concessions to Tamil
Tigers.
He has also promised to overturn previous plans for a
Federal system in exchange for ethnic peace.
The Tigers are yet to react to Rajapakse's offer of
direct talks and LTTE supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran's annual
policy statement on Sunday is seen as crucial to understand
the direction of the peace bid.
More than 60,000 people have been killed in Sri
Lanka's drawn out Tamil separatist conflict and four previous
attempts at direct negotiations ended in failure and led to
more bloodshed.
Bureau Report
