03-04-2004, 11:32 PM
Sri Lanka rebels seek truce
From correspondents in Batticaloa
March 5, 2004
THE breakaway group of Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels has asked the government to negotiate a separate truce, the dissident faction's leader said today.
"We think it's very important to have a separate defence pact with the security forces," head of the breakaway group Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan said at his hide-out in Thoppigala jungle in Batticaloa, 220km east of Colombo.
Muralitharan, also known as Karuna, said his faction had approached the government about negotiating a separate truce in areas controlled by the group.
Muralitharan yesterday said that his group is breaking away from the main rebel faction headed by Velupillai Prabhakaran who runs affairs from the Wanni region of the island's north.
Prabhakaran signed a ceasefire agreement with the Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in February 2002 to end a 19-year-old civil war.
http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0...55E1702,00.html
From correspondents in Batticaloa
March 5, 2004
THE breakaway group of Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels has asked the government to negotiate a separate truce, the dissident faction's leader said today.
"We think it's very important to have a separate defence pact with the security forces," head of the breakaway group Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan said at his hide-out in Thoppigala jungle in Batticaloa, 220km east of Colombo.
Muralitharan, also known as Karuna, said his faction had approached the government about negotiating a separate truce in areas controlled by the group.
Muralitharan yesterday said that his group is breaking away from the main rebel faction headed by Velupillai Prabhakaran who runs affairs from the Wanni region of the island's north.
Prabhakaran signed a ceasefire agreement with the Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in February 2002 to end a 19-year-old civil war.
http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0...55E1702,00.html

