US urges Lanka, LTTE to cease hostilities immediately

Colombo, Aug 17 (UNI) The US today urged Sri Lanka and the LTTE to declare an ''immediate cessation of hostilities and return to the negotiating table''.

''The fragile ceasefire agreement and the Norwegian-brokered peace process were increasingly under threat,'' visiting US Deputy Assistant Secretary, South and Central Asian Affairs, Steven Mann told reporters here this evening.

He also expressed concern over the ongoing fierce fighting between the government armed forces and the Tamil Tigers especially in the Northern Jaffna peninsula.

The US call has come at a time when the military claimed that it had killed over 90 LTTE cadres when it successfully repulsed another fierce Tigers attack on the strategic Kilaly naval detachment in the northern Jaffna peninsula.

The government troops and the LTTE are continuing their long-range artillery shelling for the sixth consecutive day with the police curfew imposed in Jaffna on Saturday being lifted only for four hours today.

Claiming that the cessation of hostilities cannot be one-sided, ''direct, immediate, and clear responsibilities to cease all acts of violence was lying with LTTE,'' Mr Mann said.

''The US would like the record of the Sri Lankan armed forces to be impeccable even in combat,'' he said adding that the LTTE should renounce acts of ''terrorism'' by all means to achieve its political goals.

He urged both the parties to show willingness to make political compromises to achieve a lasting political settlement. ''The Government of Sri Lanka must work seriously to address the legitimate grievances of the Tamil people,'' he said.

''The US is committed to the territorial integrity of Sri Lanka as much as it supports the peace process. The US is fully supportive of the effort by the Norwegian special peace envoy, Jon Hanssen Bauer and the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM),'' he added.

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