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Panel needed to monitor truce with LTTE: Sri Lanka

K Venkataramanan in Colombo

Sri Lanka on Wednesday said its proposed indefinite truce with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam might need monitoring by international or domestic observers, if the cessation of hostilities was to hold for long.

"We must make provision for a monitoring committee, if the cessation of hostilities is to hold on the ground and if it is to be systematic and complete," Cabinet spokesman G L Peiris told reporters in Colombo.

Asked about reports that the ongoing discussions covered the issue of having a panel of international monitors to oversee the truce pact on the ground, Peiris, minister for constitutional affairs and enterprise development, said the need for a monitoring mechanism was 'self-evident'.

However, he declined to confirm reports that the panel would comprise international monitors.

"We are yet to decide or discuss the details of this mechanism. Whether the monitors should be international or domestic or a combination of both is something that the parties must agree on," he said.

Asked about the duration of the proposed mutually agreed ceasefire, Peiris said, "A time frame is not desirable. Ideally, we would like a permanent cessation of hostilities, that is, an indefinite one."

"The longer the ceasefire lasts, the better the prospects for peace. Once people savour the fruits of peace and enjoy the culture of peace, the process becomes irreversible," Peiris said.

The parties are optimistic that a draft now under preparation with Norway's help, setting out terms and conditions for an agreed ceasefire, will be finalised and signed before the present ceasefire expires on February 24.

Norway's Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Jon Westborg, who was in London to assist Deputy Foreign Minister Vidar Helgesen in a discussion with LTTE chief negotiator Anton Balasingham on Monday, will return to Colombo on Thursday to brief the government on the progress made there.

The Cabinet spokesman declined to elaborate on the government's intention -- as set out in a policy address by Prime Minister Ranil Wickmremesinghe to Parliament recently -- to secure a 'guarantee' for the LTTE's bonafides and put in place a 'safety net' for security reasons before lifting the ban on the LTTE.

"We have not reached the stage for spelling out (our stand on these issues). We are concentrating on a cluster of issues related to confidence-building," he said, referring to the removal of restrictions on supply of goods to the north and reactivation of business and civil society activity there.

Peiris emphasised that the government wanted to take the peace process in sequence and did not want to get bogged down on issues that might arise at a subsequent stage or on the threshold of substantive talks.

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