Colombo (dpa) - Prime Minister Mahinda
Rajapakse, standing as ruling party's Presidential candidate, signed an
agreement Tuesday with a radical party led by Buddhist monks who insist
that Tamil rebels should be disarmed before peace talks to end the country's
ethnic conflict. Premier Rajapakse finalized the agreement with the JHU
(National Heritage Party), a party which represents the interests of the
majority Sinhala community representing the Buddhist religion, Tuesday
in Kandy, 117 kilometres east of the capital opposite a historic Buddhist
temple.
The JHU conditions include demands that
rebels be disarmed before peace talks are held; the rebel demand for a
separate state should be rejected; and the existing cease-fire agreement
signed under a Norwegian-backed peace process should be reviewed.
Rajapakse two weeks back entered into a similar agreement with the Marxists JVP (People's Liberation Front) seeking their support for the presidential election campaign.
The JVP also demanded that Norway's role in the peace process should be reviewed and an agreement with the rebels to jointly work with the government on distribution of aid in tsunami affected areas in the north and eastern parts should be scrapped.
The agreement was signed in June following increased international pressure that the government and the LTTE should work together to carry out rehabilitation work in the north and eastern parts of the country hit by the December 26 tsunami. Other parts of the country were also hit by the tsunami which claimed over 40,000 lives.
The JHU has also demanded that the agreement signed with the rebels should be scrapped.
Rajapakse's main opponent in the presidential race will be opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, the country's former Prime Minister who was the architect of the cease-fire agreement signed in February 2002 with the backing of the Norwegian government. dpa ad tl
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