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LTTE will not resort to war and violence - Balasingham

LTTE Chief Negotiator Anton Balasingham on Monday pledged that they will "not resort to war and violence", in terms of truce reached with the agreement in February.

"Both parties have realised the destructive nature of war," Balasingham said at the Sri Lanka peace support meeting in Oslo. "We pledge that we will strive our best to avoid all possible conditions of conflict and pursue the path of peace with commitment and dedication, until we establish a permanent peace and a permanent solution to the ethnic conflict," Balasingham said.

The same message is expected today in the Heroes Day speech of LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, whose birthday fell yesterday.

Prabhakaran will stress that his organisation is seeking internal self-determination within an integral Sri Lanka. This will be a departure from the LTTE's earlier insistence that the separate state of Tamil Eelam is not negotiable.

Today's statement will add impetus to next week's peace negotiations and is in line with international opinion expressed at Oslo where the LTTE was urged to find a solution within an integrated Sri Lanka. Prabhakaran is expected to say that only if the government does not give the rights to the Tamils and oppresses what he calls the "Tamil nation" that the LTTE would have the right to invoke the right to secede and agitate for a separate state.

US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage told the peace support conference arranged by Norway that the LTTE must publicly announce giving up their armed struggle.

"The US is greatly encouraged that the LTTE has made a commitment to the political solution, it has agreed to settle this conflict through peaceful means. We urge the LTTE to go one step further and add to this commitment a public renunciation of terrorism and violence (...) and accept the sovereignty of a Sri Lankan government that respects and protects human rights of all its people."

"In every aspect the outcome far exceeded our expectations," said Sri Lanka's chief peace negotiator G. L. Peiris, describing the success of the peace support conference. "The huge international support now makes the peace process irreversible."

The government and the LTTE are set to take up political issues for the first time since the start of formal face-to-face talks in Thailand on September 16.

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