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Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka main opposition presses for agenda for talks with Tigers

COLOMBO, Feb 8, 2006 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- Sri Lanka's main opposition United National Party (UNP) has urged the government to disclose its agenda for proposed direct talks with the Tamil Tigers.
Tissa Attanayake, the UNP spokesman, said Wednesday it was high time that the government revealed to the public the agenda for talks with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels which is scheduled to be held in Geneva, Switzerland, later this month.

Attanayake said the LTTE has gone on record saying that the talks will be restricted to the subject of the February 2002 ceasefire agreement.

"The government must tell people the items in the agenda," Attanayake stressed.

The government and the LTTE are to meet on Feb. 22 and Feb. 23 - - the first direct talks between the two sides since March 2003.

The UNP spokesman added that President Mahinda Rajapakse's government had earlier called for talks to amend the ceasefire agreement but the Tigers are bent on limiting the talks to strictly implement the Norwegian backed agreement.

The Tigers have been blamed for over 3000 violations of the ceasefire since it came into force. An upsurge of violence since December 2005 strengthened the cries to amend the ceasefire. Some 90 soldiers of government troops were killed in attacks blamed on the LTTE.

The Tigers in turn has accused the government sponsored paramilitary groups of killing their cadres.

Attanayake said it was important for the government to disclose the agenda in view of the contradictory aims of the Tigers and the government.