Lanka cautions against international action

Colombo, Jan 14 (UNI) The Sri Lankan Government which unilaterally abrogated last week the Norwegian-brokered February 2002 truce deal with the Tamil Tiger rebels, cautioned against any international action that could jeopardise the Government's initiatives in the peace process.

According to a Foreign Ministry statement, Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama has made these remarks during his meeting with visiting Japanese special peace envoy, Yasushi Akashi, who has expressed 'concerns' over Colombo's move to terminate the ceasefire agreement and stressed the need to seek a sustainable peace through dialogue.

The statement said Foreign Minister has pointed out to the Japanese peace envoy that there was a road map for sustainable peace in Sri Lanka in the post-CFA scenario, drawn up by the Government thus bringing the political proposals through the All Party Representative Committee (APRC) on January 23.

He also cautioned against any international action that could jeopardize the Government's initiatives in the peace process and would only strengthen LTTE intransigence and trigger increased violence in the country, the statement added.

He said the Rajapaksa government has continued to make every effort to realise the goals of de-escalation of violence in spite of the atrocities and serious violations committed by the LTTE.

Responding to a query by Mr Akashi, the Foreign Minister expressed the view that there was no need to proscribe the LTTE at the present time as there was sufficient legal infrastructure already in place.

Mr Akashi had also held a meeting with Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa this evening, but the details of the meeting were yet to be released.

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