India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Monday India's efforts would be to ensure that the current ceasefire holds in Sri Lanka as a pre-requisite for a durable solution to the island's crisis, IANS reported.
Mr. Singh, who is on an official visit to Brazil and Cuba, told correspondents accompanying him that India was in touch with both the Sri Lankan government and Norwegian facilitators.
“And our effort is to ensure that the ceasefire holds and that both parties (the Sri Lankan military and the Tamil Tigers) are scrupulously committed to preserving the ceasefire,” Mr Singh said.
“I think that's an essential pre-requisite before we can move forward to a durable solution,” he added.
Mr. Singh’s comments aboard Air India One came a day before the Co-Chairs of Sri Lanka’s donor community – the United States, European Union, Japan and Norway – held an emergency meeting to discuss the crisis in the island.
The Liberation Tigers Tuesday reiterated their position that a stable ceasefire was necessary for talks.
"Within the context of the military offensives by the Sri Lankan armed forces and their continuing forced occupations of the Tamil homeland, we do consider that the CFA (ceasefire agreement) has become meaningless," Thamilselvan told Reuters.
"However, since the facilitators and the international community are eager to strengthen the peace efforts, the LTTE is also continuing to examine options for strengthening the CFA," he added.
“The opportunities for resuming the talks will be much stronger when the Sri Lankan government ceases its military attacks and all the CFA articles are fully respected and implemented."
