by Prasad Gunewardene
President Chandrika Kumaratunga is of the view that the government and the LTTE should first make an official statement on the progress and the outcome on the inaugural sessions of the Bangkok Peace Talks for the opposition and the President to respond, Presidential spokesman Janadasa Peiris told ‘The Island’ yesterday. "The President is satisfied on what had transpired in Thailand so far", he added.

President Chandrika Kumaratunga has expressed satisfaction over the progress made at the Thailand peace talks between the government and the LTTE and is now studying the statements made by LTTE theoretician Anton Balasingham and government delegation leader Prof. G. L. Peiris at the conclusion of the inaugural talks, Peiris told ‘The Island’ yesterday.

He said the President who was in contact with her advisers and after a careful study on the situation she may express her views in public.

SLFP general secretary Maithripala Sirisena stressed that the LTTE and the government should officially inform the people on what they discussed there to educate the people. He said that the two sides must either issue a joint statement or individual statements to confirm their position an any progress made at the inaugural talks.

He said comments made at a subsequent press conference in Bankok could not be taken as official as both sides could twist what they told to their benefit.

Sirisena said that if the LTTE has dropped the demand for a separate state, they should explain to the people what they meant by self-determination or self-rule. "We cannot use words and phrases that could fool us later," Sirisena added.

Sirisena noted that the LTTE was not an organisation to be trusted and therefore the government must make them explain what they really want or expect by self-determination or self-rule.

He cautioned that self-rule with the LTTE was dangerous as it would lead to separation in the future as Balasingham repeatedly stressed at the Bangkok press conference that the LTTE wanted international recognition for the demand for self-determination or self-rule which he said was not a separate state. Yesterday, President Kumaratunga and her advisers were studying the video tapes of the recordings of the Thailand peace talks and the press conference held by Prof. Peiris and Anton Balasingham with Norway’s Erik Solhiem and Vidar Helgessen in attendance.