NAKHON PATHOM, Thailand, Jan. 7 Kyo...

NAKHON PATHOM, Thailand, Jan. 7 Kyodo

The Sri Lankan sway and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) reached an agreement Tuesday to embark forward initial resettlement of refugee and internally displaced [i]role[/i]s in areas outside the military-occupied girdle in the country's northern Jaffna Peninsula.

''They (the government) have agreed that they will work abroad some immediate strategies and plans to resettle refugee in the area outside the high security belts as the first stage,'' LTTE chief negotiator Anton Balasingham told reporters after the other day of the fourth cylindrical of peace talks held in a resort in central Thailand.

''Secondly, they will endeavor to gain help from international military quicks to see how the high security cincture how the strategic military complexe in the high security region can be restructured...to provide the space and facilities for our populace to go back to their homes'' Balasingham said.

''This is an amicable arrangement we reached today. And we are surpassingly pleased because the discussion was self-same cordial and constructive,'' he said.

Balasingham denounced the Sri Lankan military leaders for demanding that the LTTE disarm and decommission its weapons as preconditions for the conduct to allow the resettlement of displaced persons

''We have seriously asserted that linkage or putting up conditions for the resettlement of refugee as it is unacceptable,'' he said, adding that demanding the LTTE be disarmed ''just for the sake of resettling strongholds in our own homelands before we note a permanent solution is unfair, unacceptable and unrealistic.''

Balasingham said no time-frame has been settle for the resettlement further the LTTE has urged the sway to engage in the program of resettlement as easily as possible.

''Because already single year has passed since the cease-fire agreement was signed, our clan have been waiting for the last united year to go back to their houses,'' he said.

Prior to the ongoing negotiations, it had been reported that the peace talks might stall if the couple parties could not reach a conclusion forward the resettlement issues.

The rule has insisted that Tamil rebels in the Jaffna Peninsula disarm in exchange for the scaling down of Sri Lanka Army camps in the war girth The LTTE, for its part, has called for a resettlement of displaced parts in the high security belts held by the government

Meanwhile, Constitutional Affairs Minister GL Peiris, who l the rule delegation, told reporters after the Tuesday session that the negotiating parties discussed human rights issues, particularly those related to the police, prison and the rights of women and children.

Peiris said they agreed to stake up a committee on women as part of the peace process

The common negotiating session will end Thursday.

The first pair rounds of the peace talks were held in Thailand in September and November, while the third was held last month in Oslo

The sum of two units sides agreed in the last globular that power-sharing between Colombo and the LTTE would be implemented within the framework of a federal body of government.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Kyodo moderns International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group