Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, June 07, 2002
Sri Lanka Considers Legal Procedure to Lift Ban on Tamil Rebels
The Sri Lankan government is currently considering the necessary legal procedure to lift the ban imposed on separatist Tamil Tiger rebels, government spokesman and Constitutional Minister G.L. Peiris said Friday.
The Sri Lankan government is currently considering the necessary legal procedure to lift the ban imposed on separatist Tamil Tiger rebels, government spokesman and Constitutional Minister G.L. Peiris said Friday.
"It is the intention of the government to take effective action to de-proscribe the LTTE ( Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam)," Peiris told reporters.
The matter will be considered in earnest once Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe concluded his visit to India, Peiris added.
The minister said that necessary legal steps to lift the ban imposed on the LTTE rebels in 1998 will be undertaken 10 days prior to the commencement of the peace talks to be held in Thailand.
The Norwegian-brokered peace talks between the government and the LTTE rebels are expected to commence at the end of this month or early July.
Prime Minister Wickremesinghe will leave for India on Saturday for a three-day visit. He will brief Indian leaders on the development of the peace process in the country.
Peiris said that the agenda for talks in Thailand will consist of a variety of items. "One of those issues will be the interim administration and the interim council will be taken up in the context of other issues such as human rights," he added.
The LTTE rebels have demanded the lifting of the ban imposed on them as a pre-condition for talks. They have also called for the setting up of an interim administration in the north and east of the country where a bloody armed ethnic conflict has claimed over 64,000 lives since 1983.