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| Sunday, 2 October 2005 |
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EU ban : No impact on peace facilitation by Ranga Jayasuriya The European Union travel ban on the LTTE will not impact on the role of the Norwegian peace facilitators, a Norwegian Embassy spokeswoman said. "We are not party to the declaration...The ban will not have any impact on us," Norwegian Embassy spokeswoman Kjersti Tromsdal told the Sunday Observer. Norway is not a member state of the European Union. "Our role remains unchanged," she said adding Norwegians would resume peace diplomacy once Oslo finalises its coalition government. Former Head of the Mission of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission Trond Furuhovde will visit the island, as scheduled, in the middle of this month to consult the government and the LTTE on reviewing the Ceasefire Agreement. The 25 nation European Union last Tuesday announced a travel ban on the LTTE delegations visiting the member states, while threatening a complete ban on the Tigers. "The EU is actually considering the formal listing of the LTTE as a terrorist organisation. In the meantime, the EU has agreed that with immediate effect, the delegations from the LTTE will no longer be received in any EU member states until further notice". The EU declaration further stated that the member states would take national measures to curb illegal activities, including fund-raising and propaganda by LTTE front organisations and individual supporters. Meanwhile, thousands of people thronged into Jaffna University grounds on Friday, in an LTTE organised Pongu Tamil (Tamil Resurgence) festival, declaring the right to self-determination as non-negotiable and denouncing the EU ban as one sided punitive action. The government on Friday said the EU ban would help break the deadlock in the negotiations and would facilitate and not complicate the peace process "We do not think the EU ban will in anyway be a hindrance to the peace process, Cabinet Spokesman Nimal Siripala de Silva told the weekly Cabinet briefing. |
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