Monks stage demonstration

Hundreds of Buddhist monks staged a march here yesterday denouncing peace broker Norway and demanding that the government abandon plans to lift a ban on Tamil Tiger rebels ahead of crucial talks in Thailand.

The newly formed National Conference of Buddhist Monks led a procession to the main conference hall to demand that the government should not agree to rebel demands to remove the ban.

"Lifting the ban on Tamil Tigers is not only illegal and a violation of democratic norms, but an insult to the Buddhist community," the monks said in a resolution to be submitted to President Chandrika Kumaratunga, whose remarks against the lifting of the ban coincided with the campaign by the influential NCBM.

The monks, who gathered in Colombo yesterday to protest against lifting the ban on the guerrilla organisation, have vowed to carry out an islandwide campaign against the government move.

Meanwhile the ruling United National Front (UNF) has indicated it will ignore objections raised by Kumaratunga to the lifting of a proscription on the Tamil guerrillas ahead of talks with the Sri Lankan government although they are seen as a drawback to the peace process.

Kumaratunga on Sunday, made public her party's views on the lifting of the ban on the guerrillas and said that the proscription should be lifted only as the talks between the two sides progress and depending on the outcome of the negotiations.

Government sources said the President's objections would not change the decision to lift the ban 10 days ahead of talks in Thailand.

The ban on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was imposed in January 1998 under the Prevention of Terrorism Act and could be lifted by the Defence Minister without the cooperation of the President.

That has been made possible since the Defence Minister Tilak Marapana is a member of the ruling UNF.

The Prime Minister's decision to insist that his nominee be made the defence minister after winning the elections late last year instead of allowing the president to hold the post seems to have paid off.

The talks, aimed at ending two decades of civil war between successive Colombo governments and the guerrillas, will be the fourth attempt at finding a negotiated settlement to the demand for independence for the country's minority Tamils living in the north and east.

Gulf News learns that Kumaratunga also agreed to lend unofficial support for a public demonstration against the lifting of the ban to be organised by the nationalists together with the Marxist Peoples Liberation Front (JVP) on September 14 – two days before talks are to start in the naval port-city of Sattahip.

In the meantime, the UNF coalition was preparing to hold a massive show of support for the peace talks on September 9 by bringing in crowds into the capital.

Chairmen and directors of public corporations have already been summoned to the ruling party headquarters to be given instructions on how to organise state-owned buses and party cadres for this show of strength.

Kumaratunga's Peoples Alliance coalition has officially said they support peace talks, but sections of its hardliners working together with the JVP are determined to undermine the exercise and bring down the ruling UNF saying they are set to divide the country - an emotive issue with the public for decades since regaining independence in 1948.