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Ceasefire agreement only way to end war - Thera

by Tennakoon Kulasekara

Ven. Udalumada Gunaratana Thera Chief Sanghanayake of the Northern and Eastern Provinces commenting on the President's purported statement that "she can cancel the ceasefire agreement between the UNF Government and the LTTE with one command to the Army", said the people of this country should denounce the President if she had actually made such a statement.

Ven. Gunaratana Thera said "the ceasefire agreement signed between Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and the LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran is the only way through which we can end this deadly war, which has lasted over 2 decades and find a solution to the present crisis". Ven. Gunaratana Thera, who was addressing a press conference organised by the Central Province Inter Peace Committee at the 'Setic' institute, Kandy on Tuesday said people of this country are all clamouring for peace today. In such a situation it is both a national tragedy and misfortune for the President to have made such a statement. Ven. Gunaratana Thera said the President too won the 1994 Presidential election on a pledge to usher in peace. The whole world knows that she and her government failed to fulfil that pledge. So even if the President did not desire peace in the country she should understand that the vast majority of people wanted to achieve peace soon.

Archdeacon of Kandy Rev. Fr. Nandana Manatunga said permits are unnecessary for the people of the South to travel to the North for the cause of peace. He alleged that certain Army and Police officers in the Vanni are acting in an arbitrary and rash manner that may sabotage the government's peace effort.

He alleged that a 75 member delegation of the Central Province Inter-Peace Committee including members of the Buddhist and Catholic clergy which toured the Vanni faced undue harassment at the hands of officers manning Ulukkulam checkpoint and they condemned such action.

Rev. Frs. George Sigamani, Cleetus Perera, Camillus Jansz, Anthony Gnanapragasam and Messrs J. Benedict and H. J. Jeslin also attended the press conference. 

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