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by Ranil Wijayapala

The Government has handed over a revised document containing its reactions to the Initial Working Paper of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) for the prevention of sea incidents that would endanger the ongoing peace process.

Official government sources told the Daily News yesterday that the Government has disagreed with some proposals presented by the SLMM Chief Tryggve Telefssen in his working paper while agreeing with some proposals that would not affect the role of the Sri Lanka Navy.

SLMM Chief Telefssen as agreed at the Hakone talks presented an initial working paper for the Government and the LTTE on April 3 seeking reactions from both parties by April 17.

The Government has prepared this revised document based on this initial working paper in consultation with Navy Commander Vice Admiral Daya Sandagiri and Foreign Ministry officials as these proposals directly concerned the Sri Lanka Navy and the Foreign Ministry.

Director General of the Secretariat for the Coordination of the Peace Process (SCOPP) Bernard Goonatilleke and Defence Secretary Austin Fernando have also participated in preparing this document.

Government officials while presenting this document to the SLMM Chief have pointed out it is not necessary to change the existing system.

The Government is expecting reactions from the SLMM on these proposals by this afternoon before entering the final discussion on the working paper on April 24 in the no man's land area in Omanthai.

The sources said that the officials working on this subject will participate at this meeting to reach final agreement on the issue.

SLMM Spokesman Teitur Torkelson told the Daily News yesterday the LTTE was expected to hand over their formal reaction to the SLMM proposals last evening.

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