Sri Lankan peace talks faces another setback

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s faltering peace process suffered another setback on Tuesday when the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) gave an ultimatum to the government to either stop supporting the rebel Tiger leader Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan, aka Karuna, or risk war.

The LTTE officially told Norwegian truce monitors that they would indefinitely boycott truce review meetings with the military until they stopped harbouring Karuna.

“The future of the ceasefire agreement and the peace talks is not in our hands now,” the LTTE’s political wing leader SP Thamilselvan told reporters.

“It is in the hands of the Sri Lanka army, truce monitors and the Norwegian facilitators.”

The Tigers told Norwegian-led truce monitors who went to the rebel-held town of Kilinochchi for an emergency session that the government had the war or peace option.

The head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), Trond Furuhovde, held talks after the Tigers on Friday announced pulling out of joint meetings to review the implementation of the truce. agencies

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