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Arumugam Thondaman welcomes MoU

Housing and Plantation Infrastructure Minister and CWC leader Arumugam Thondaman has welcomed the Ceasefire Agreement signed between Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and said it had opened the path to charter a better future for the country. He has also called upon all Sri Lankans to rally round the Prime Minister to protect and carry forward the peace process to ultimate success without leaving room for anyone to obstruct or sabotage it.

Minister Thondaman in a press release issued said that they fervently believed that the operation of the Cessation of Hostilities agreement would bring some sort of relief to the problems and crises faced by the Tamil people, especially those living in the North and East. The release said the fundamental requisite for lasting peace and a cessation of hostilities was to change the difficult situation thrust on the Tamil people living in the North and East.

The long journey towards peace could not be started without creating an environment that would safeguard the fundamental human rights of the Tamil people who were living in fear and a state of shock.

Minister Thondaman further said that they firmly believed that the LTTE and its leadership were presently firmly committed to the peace effort more than anytime in the countrys history. Peace could never be attained without the direct co-operation and intervention of the LTTE.

He said the founder leader of their party late Mr. Saumyamoorthy Thondaman met Mr. Prabhakaran in 1991 and made a dedicated effort to find a lasting solution to this problem through discussions. But unfortunately the then government did not show a favourable response to that effort and the opportunity for solving the problem was unfortunately lost.

Minister Thondaman further said they had the opportunity to meet and speak to people in the East during their recent tour of Batticaloa and Trincomalee undertaken with the approval of the Prime Minister. These areas devoid of an environment conducive for a decent living had been totally left out of the development path in the past.

When they met the Prime Minister after the inspection tour they requested the Prime Minister to change this situation by bringing these areas back into the development process. We should therefore surmount this difficult situation in order to achieve these good intentions.

Minister Thondaman said he would personally call upon everyone to forget narrow political and personal gains and join hands to strengthen and carry forward this bi-partisan understanding. As Sri Lankans let us all rally round the Prime Minister to protect and carry forward the peace process towards its ultimate goal of success without leaving any room for sabotaging it, said Minister Thondaman.

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