2002 Ceasefire useless - Liberal Party
Though the Liberal Party believes that there is a need for an agreed
or unilateral ceasefire, it feels that the 2002 Cease Fire Agreement
document had been signed by the parties even without reading the
contents, the Liberal Party said in a statement issued yesterday.
The party said in a statement: “It is a well known fact that during
the so called peace period, it had been constantly violated by the
Liberation Tigers. Just in the aftermath of its signing, more than 60
intelligence officers sacrificed their lives before unknown LTTE gunmen
and during the period concerned former Foreign Minister Lakshman
Kadirgamar, Deputy Secretary of the Peace Secretariat K.Loganathan and
many others were gunned down by the LTTE. They also attempted the life
of Army Chief Sarath Fonseka.
All are aware that though Ranil Wickremesinghe’s Government honestly
attempted to safeguard the provisions of the agreement the Tiger leader
had his own tactics to build up the military strength of the LTTE under
the shadow of the Agreement.
Liberals were of the view that even Chandrika Kumaratunga as the then
President was not duty bound to adhere to the agreement between UNP and
LTTE .The so called agreement itself is a piece of “appeasement”.
However Liberals believe that the President under the Sri Lankan
Constitution is able to enter in to agreements on behalf of the Sri
Lankan state but not by the Prime Minister. Taking into considerations
of the present realities Liberals feel that the 2002 agreement is
useless and suggest that time has come to initiate a different type of a
ceasefire.
Liberals denounce all types of terrorism and believe that a political
solution is the answer to the ongoing conflict in Sri Lanka and suggest
all political parties including the political wing of the Liberation
Tigers to study the Indian constitution as model for future Sri Lanka.
Thus, we uphold the view that a negotiated settlement is a must and urge
all stake holders to work in unison to achieve the target.”
Kamal Nissanka, Leader, Liberal Party of Sri Lanka |
