Ratnasiri thanks troops for protecting ceasefire

by Chamikara Weerasinghe

Acting Defence Minister and Public Security, Law and Order Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake thanked the Armed Forces in the North and East last Saturday for protecting the MoU and Cease-fire Agreement signed between the Government and the LTTE under the most difficult circumstances.

Addressing a public meeting in Horana, Minister Wickremanayake said that the Armed Forces had endured a lot to protect the Ceasefire even as it was being violated continuously by the other party by upsetting civil life in the North-East with armed violence.

Minister Wickremanayake also said the Government was determined to achieve permanent peace on a violence-free democratic footing. "Hence, it has decided to apprise the international community about the current security situation in the North-East with regard to terrorist killings which have become rampant in these areas over the past weeks."

A spokesman for the Ministry of Public Security Law and Order said that the ministry had taken the decision to apprise the international community in keeping with the government's continuous commitment to protect the Ceasefire.

He said the ministry had repeatedly informed the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission about terrorist killings in the Northeast, but there was no sign of the situation improving.

"The number of killings has increased instead," he pointed out.