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| Sunday, 12 February 2006 |
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Muslim parties urged to nominate representative by Thava Sajitharan The government has urged the Muslim political parties to nominate their representative to be included in the delegation for the Geneva talks soon. This follows a request by President Mahinda Rajapakse when he met with all the Muslim political parties on Friday. The government last week announced that it was in the process of preparing to discuss a "meaningful ceasefire" in Geneva while the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam insisted on "talks conducted in constructive manner with positive engagement". Government spokesperson and Media Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa briefed journalists in Colombo last Thursday on steps taken in preparation for talks between the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) and the LTTE in Geneva scheduled to be held on February 22 - 23. The delegation for talks will be headed by Health and Nutrition Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva, said Minister Yapa. Other two members include Trade, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle and Investment Promotion and Enterprise Development Minister Rohitha Bogollagama. Minister Yapa said that names of other members of the delegation would be announced shortly. The Minister also said that a 'steering committee on peace building' had been appointed by the President. The committee, headed by Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera, includes six Cabinet Ministers, a Deputy Minister, Members of Parliament, alliance partners of the government, six permanent secretaries, and senior officials of the Foreign Ministry and the Peace Secretariat, according to the government spokesperson. Meanwhile, the LTTE political wing leader S.P.Thamilchelvan was reported to have said that Geneva talks is "not a forum to wage a propaganda war" the pro-LTTE website Tamilnet quoted Thamilchelvan as saying so. |
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