UNP admits CFA 'responsibility'
The main oppsosition in Sri Lanka has accepted 'full responsibility' of signing a truce with the Tamil Tigers.
The United National Party (UNP) said then Prime Minister, Ranil Wickramasinghe, signed the ceasefire as attempts by many previous leaders failed to end the bloodshed. Wickramasinghe and LTTE supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran signed the Norwegian brokered Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) was signed on 22 February 2002. In an exclusive interview with the BBC, President Mahinda Rajapaksa described the CFA as a "mistake". Rajapaksa signed an MoU in 2005 with the Peoples Liberation Front (JVP), that pledged to 'review fully' the CFA if he was elected. UNP Assistant Secretary Dr. Jayalath Jayawardhene told journalists in Colombo that the party wanted to end the conflict that claimed over 60,000 lives and over 30,000 made disabled. "Nearly a million people were internally displaced in Sri Lanka by 2002," he said. He denied the accusations by certain parties that the CFA offered legitimacy to the LTTE by effectively declaring Kilinochchi and Mulaitivu districts as LTTE-held territory. "Within weeks of signing the CFA, we managed to open District Secretariats in Mulaitivu and Kilinochchi," Jayawardhene said. The parliamentarian hailed the reopening of A9 highroad within weeks of signing the CFA as a step forward 'towards reuniting divided Sri Lanka'. The CFA was criticised by the Sinhala nationalists as a step towards 'dividing Sri Lanka'. The then President, Chandrika Kumaratunga, accused Wickramasinghe of signing the truce without the approval of the head of state.