VAVUNIYA (Sri Lanka) Feb 22: Sri Lanka’s cohabitation government on Friday entered into a Norwegian-backed formal truce with Tamil Tiger rebels in a historic move that attracted international backing and opposition at home.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe described his government’s assent to a memorandum of understanding on a ceasefire with Tamil Tiger rebels as a “first step towards peace”.

On a visit to the embattled northern town of Vavuniya, which borders territory held by the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Wickremesinghe gave his approval to the Norwegians, who have been acting as mediators, and a statement from Oslo followed.

“As from 0000 hours on 23rd of February 2002, a ceasefire agreement enters into force between the government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tamil Tigers of Eelam,” Norwegian Foreign Minister Jan Petersen said in a statement.

“The ceasefire document, signed by Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and LTTE leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran has been deposited with the Norwegian government and we have been asked to make the agreement public.”

President Chandrika Kumaratunga, who is from a rival party, castigated the prime minister for rushing into the truce without giving her adequate notice but did not oppose the ceasefire deal outright, her office said.

“The truce will not end the war. This is a first step towards restoring peace in our country,” Wickremesinghe told thousands of troops at the main military base in Vavuniya.

Wickremesinghe, who came to power following December elections on a promise to open talks with Tigers and revive the island’s war-battered economy, said he wanted to give peace a chance despite long-held differences.

“I have a strong belief that there will be peace, but I have no illusions that it will be easy,” Wickremesinghe said while urging troops to be on their guard despite the ceasefire.

“Where there is suspicion and doubt, we must maintain our alert and we can review our position as we go along,” he said.

He announced that representatives from Norway, Denmark Sweden and Finland would be in Sri Lankan shortly to monitor the cessation of hostilities pact.

The truce is to be implemented in three stages over a period of 90 days and will give government troops and Tiger rebels access to each other’s areas while travelling unarmed and out of uniform.

“The ceasefire will stop harassment of civilians, the terrorism, the extortion and abductions that were all associated with the war,” Wickremesinghe said.

The ceasefire was the first step required for further negotiations between the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE, which has been fighting for an independent homeland in the north and east of the island.

More than 60,000 people have died in the separatist violence in the past three decades. Wickremesinghe said he hoped to travel to rebel-held areas “in the next year or two”.

He said the government will shortly open talks with peace broker Norway on the prospect of starting direct face-to-face political negotiations with the LTTE in a bid to end the long-running conflict.

Additional security measures went into place here following the overnight shooting at the offices of a Tamil political party where a total of five people were killed and one more wounded, police said.

The truce deal is the first bilateral ceasefire in seven years. The last one, in 1995, ended after 100 days.

Kumaratunga took exception to the agreement being shown to her only a few hours before Wickremesinghe said he would sign it Thursday and only after LTTE supremo Prabhakaran had signed it.

“The president is of the opinion that the procedures followed with regard to concluding the MoU (memorandum of understanding) ignoring constitutional provisions to obtain presidential approval as well as not informing the cabinet of ministers and parliament is considered improper,” her office said.

It added that the president, while being supportive of the ceasefire, after a brief examination of the agreement had expressed concern to the prime minister about specific clauses and aspects.

Diplomats in Colombo said the international community strongly supported Norway’s efforts to broker the truce.

India said it welcomed the ceasefire “which will provide an opportunity to both sides to move forward towards a substantive dialogue for a negotiated political settlement of the ethnic conflict”.

The 2.5-million-strong minority Tamil community in Sri Lanka has close cultural and religious links with the 60 million Tamils in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.—AFP