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| Tuesday, 23 March 2004 |
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| PM promises permanent peace From Bharatha Malawaraarachchi in Hatton Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe expressed confidence that a lasting peace could be established in Sri Lanka through negotiations for a political solution within a stipulated time frame of two years. "I am confident that we could achieve a political solution which could ensure a permanent peace in Sri Lanka, through negotiations within two years," the Prime Minister said on Sunday addressing several election rallies in Welimada, Nuwara Eliya and Hatton in support of United National Front (UNF) candidates contesting the April election. Prime Minister Wickremesinghe called on the people to give a strong mandate to the UNF to form a stable Government to move forward the peace process and ensure economic prosperity to achieve this aspiration. Referring to the Freedom Alliance policy statement, the Prime Minister said it has no clear stance in resolving the country's prolonged crisis. "The PA and the JVP have disputes over power devolution. They have different stances and ideas. This would greatly affect the future of the peace process", he said. "The Alliance strongly criticised our ceasefire agreement and measures taken by us to dawn peace to this country. But, they have failed to place any alternative proposals to resolve this critical issue," the Prime Minister said. Wickremesinghe said even the LTTE had rejected the power devolution stance of the Freedom Alliance. "The LTTE had even refused the President's statement that the LTTE had initiated dialogues with the Freedom Alliance. The LTTE had completely rejected the stance of the Alliance," he said. Stressing the necessiity of continuing negotiations with the LTTE to find a lasting solution to the country's prolonged crisis, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe said it has now been proved that the Freedom Alliance would not be able to bring peace to the country. He said the current peace process would be in crisis if an Alliance Government comes into power. |
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