UNSC reach consensus:

No ceasefire call to Lanka

*LTTE must lay down arms

*Influence Tigers to let go civilians - Sir John Holmes

A UN Security Council on Friday received a briefing by Under Secretary General Sir John Holmes who visited Sri Lanka at President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s invitation last week.

The briefing did not result in a ceasefire call to Sri Lanka from the Security Council, but general agreement that the LTTE must lay down arms and ease suffering of civilians.

Sir John Holmes told reporters that humanitarian concerns about the people held captive by the LTTE remains a major concern while the concerns about IDPs who have already come to cleared areas seems less than what was feared for.

He was strongly critical of the LTTE’s continuing ruthlessness by not allowing people to leave the conflict area. Sir John had good words about increasing cooperation with the Government and made positive comments about the Government’s policy and objective to send back about 80 per cent of IDPs as soon as possible or within a year.

Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama told the media yesterday that the Government is thankful to the United Nations for its better understanding of the ground situation in Sri Lanka.He was strongly critical of the LTTE’s continuing ruthlessness by not allowing people to leave the conflict area.

Sir John appealed to all those with any influence on the position of the Tigers to use that influence to force them to let the civilians go.

“There is no time to lose,” he said. He described the situation of trapped people as dire but acknowledged IDPS in transit camps are reasonably well. He was not aware of major outbreak of disease in the conflict area.

He gave some descriptions of his conversations with IDPs and commented on the fairly satisfactory physical conditions and the efforts made to have acceptable screening procedures.

The President of the Security Council, Ambassador Takasu of Japan , said that Sri Lanka cannot be compared with other situations like Sudan where there are implications for international peace and security, as Sri Lanka’s is an internal issue where a Government is combating a group described as a terrorist organization by many countries.

The President of the Council reiterated that laying down arms by the Tigers will be the most practical way of bringing this conflict to an end. After the briefing several ambassadors to the UN told reporters that LTTE should lay down arms to end conflict.

The British Ambassador said they have all along been sympathetic to a briefing but made his position very clear that Sri Lanka is not on the Agenda of the Council and the spotlight should be on the LTTE which is a proscribed as terrorist outfit and they should lay down arms and allow civilians to go free so that political process can begin. The Russian Ambassador Vitaly I. Churkin was more categorical in saying that the briefing is a one time affair and that it will not go beyond that.

This is an internal situation against a terrorist group which the Government is trying to handle through military and political means.