January 4, 2002	Friday	Shawwal 19, 1422

COLOMBO, Jan 3: Sri Lanka said on Thursday it hoped to formalize a ceasefire with Tamil Tiger guerrillas with a framework of terms and conditions.

The government is planning to work out a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the rebels aimed at “a coherent system and framework”, Constitutional Affairs Minister G.L. Peiris told reporters here.

The MOU would contain conditions mutually agreed by both sides, he added.

Last month the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) announced a month-long unilateral truce starting from Christmas Eve.

Shortly afterwards, the new government, which was elected in December on a pledge to end the armed conflict by opening talks, said it would reciprocate the truce.

On Wednesday the government eased an economic embargo of areas held by the Tamil rebels in the island’s north.

The move was a key demand of the LTTE prior to any peace process.

“It is important to build up goodwill,” Peiris said.

But he added that the path to peace was not easy and the government was adopting “a slow and steady” approach towards resolving the conflict.

“We have to learn from mistakes that pervaded the relationship (with the LTTE) in the past,” he said.

Since the ceasefire came into effect, both the rebels and the government have asked the Norwegian government to resume its facilitation role in the island’s conflict, which has left more than 60,000 people dead in the past three decades.

Earlier attempts by Norway to broker peace ran into rough weather in June when the then-government sidelined Oslo’s peace envoy. The peace process has been on hold since then.

Peiris said he did not know when any negotiations brokered by the Norwegians could begin.—AFP