President Chandrika Kumaratunge

"President has requested an urgent meeting between the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE, in the presence of the facilitator and the SLMM, to review the practical functioning of the Cease Fire Agreement with a view to preventing further killings and other violations", presidential secretariat announced today.

On the direction of the president ,the Government had, prior to the assassination of the late Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, requested the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission to arrange a meeting between Sri Lanka’s senior level military personnel and senior LTTE military cadres.

This was in order to devise ways and means of ending the political killings that had been taking place recently, in contravention of the Cease Fire Agreement, it further said.

The international community has condemned the murder of the late Foreign Minister. Having noted, the statement of the President of the United Nation’s Security Council, President Kumaratunga has condemned the violation of the UN offices in Killinochchi by the LTTE and regrets that this incident has taken place, besmirching cordial relations between Sri Lanka and the United Nations, in the 50th year of Sri Lanka’s membership in that organization.