COLOMBO, Dec 7: President Mahinda Rajapakse said on Thursday he had given permission for special Norwegian peace envoy Jon Hansen Baur to visit the LTTE headquarters despite requesting earlier to Norway to abandon its links with the guerilla group.
Talking to foreign diplomats in Colombo following the government’s decision to re-introduce the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), the president said he wanted Norway to continue playing the role of peace broker.
“It is because I want the peace process to be sustained that I today informed Mr. Jon Hanssen Baur that he could go ahead with his visit to Killinochchi,” the president reportedly told the diplomatic community. The Norwegian peace envoy is to leave for the LTTE-administered North on Friday for meetings with the Tamil Tiger leadership.
Baur, who arrived in Sri Lanka last week, cancelled his visit to the LTTE-controlled Killinochchi region, initially scheduled for Monday on the directive of the government.
Meanwhile, the international truce monitors overseeing Sri Lanka’s deteriorating ceasefire are to seek a clarification from the government on the impact the re-enforcement of the Prevention of Terrorism Act would have on the four-year-old Ceasefire Agreement, a spokesman for the group, Thorfinur Omarsson, said.
The Article 2.12 of the Ceasefire Agreement states, “The Parties agree that search operations and arrests under the Prevention of Terrorism Act shall not take place. Arrests shall be conducted under due process of law in accordance with the Criminal Procedure Code.”
