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| Sunday, 8 September 2002 |
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Northern clergy back peace talks, extend hand to South from Ananth Palakidnar in Jaffna As some of the largest crowds of devotees in decades thronged Jaffna for the historic Nallur Sri Skandaswamy Kovil festival last week, prominent religious leaders in the peninsula expressed strong backing for the peace process and extended the hand of solidarity with the southern religious leadership in ensuring success for the forthcoming peace talks. While the temple authorities estimated that more than Rs.100,000 devotees had attended the Nallur chariot festival, a large number of families from the overseas Tamil diaspora are known to arrived here for the first time since they fled the country to join in the festivities. A number of families currently living in the West are now in Jaffna, some with children born abroad who are seeing their parental homeland for the first time. Srila Sri Somasunthara Thesika Ganasampantha Paramachariya Swamigal, the chief incumbent of the Nallur Atheenam told the Sunday Observer in a short interview: "The country has now reached a very important stage. We can see that since the Ceasefire Agreement was signed between the Government and the LTTE last February, enormous changes have taken place with regard to the situation in the country, especially the prospects for peace. Therefore it is important for every Sri Lankan to remain calm and sensible when the peace talks begin in Thailand. "We have suffered enough in the past two decades due to the monstrous war in the country. So all must pray for peace and come forward to support the parties engaged in the peace process." The Rt. Rev. Thomas Savuntharanayagam, Catholic Bishop of Jaffna said: "We are happy and pleased to note that finally the talks between the Government and the LTTE are due to begin in Thailand next week with Norwegian facilitation. Though this is a late exercise and much blood had been shed, at last the warring parties have realised the importance of peace. It is important that the Government and the LTTE should build confidence in each other and they should have an open mind when they deal with the complex matters that will come before them. Honesty and flexibility are what is necessary to make the talks a success. "All Tamil political parties as well as the LTTE should bear in mind the agony experienced by the innocent civilians in the North and the East and the civilians throughout the country at large. Therefore without allowing a repetition of what happened in the past two decades, all efforts must be focussed on building a healthy atmosphere for peace. I also strongly appeal to the Buddhist clergy of this country to contribute positively to the success of the peace process by recognising the rights of the minorities of this country which were denied in the past. The religious, political and other socio-economic sectors in this country should grab this opportunity to work towards a lasting peace." The Jaffna Bishop said that on September 13, 14 and 15, just prior to the talks in Thailand, special peace messages would be read out through out the Catholic churches in the North and the East and elaborate arrangements have also been made to have special prayer meetings to seek peace. |
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