TULF wants LTTE ban lifted

COLOMBO, Monday- (AFP) - A moderate Sri Lankan Tamil party today called for the government to lift a ban on the Tamil Tigers before a Norwegian-backed peace bid in the island gets underway."

It is absolutely essential that the ban is lifted for the talks to be successful," said M. Sivasithamparam, president of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), which is the main political party for the Tamil minority."

Which militant group will want to talk with a gun at its head?" he added.
Sri Lanka banned the rebels, who are fighting for an independent homeland in the north and east of the island, in January 1998 after they attacked Sri Lanka's holiest Buddhist shrine, the Temple of the Tooth. The US, Britain, India and Canada have also outlawed the organisation.

In recent days both the Sri Lankan government and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have asked the government of Norway to facilitate a peace process to end the island's long drawn out ethnic bloodshed that has left more than 60,000 dead since 1983.Both sides are currently observing a month-long truce which is expected to clear the way for talks.

The government has also eased an economic embargo which was in force on goods sent to rebel-controlled areas in the war-torn north and east provinces. The lifting of the embargo was a key demand by the rebels.

Any demand to lift the ban could prove politically troublesome for the new government of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as it could lead to opposition in the south, which is dominated by the majority Sinhalese community.The Prime Minister Wickremesinghe told reporters last month that rebel de-proscription was "a bridge we will cross when we get there".

Wickremesinghe's United National Party won elections in December with a pledge to pursue the peace effort, which has been stalled since June last year.
The TULF contested the election in alliance with pro-rebel parties demanding that the rebel ban be lifted.The alliance won 15 seats in Sri Lanka's parliament from constituencies in the north and east.

(http://www.dailymirror.lk/archives/dmr080102/News/tulf.html)