‘The APRC deliberations aimed at finding a political solution to the country’s conflict have entered their final and concluding stages and the forum sat for the 100th time last week’, APRC chairman and Science and Technology Minister Professor Tissa Vitarana told this newspaper yesterday.

He said that President Rajapaksa, ‘the seasoned politician that he is’, knows the importance of pushing through a political solution to the conflict through the APRC, and is firmly committed to the APRC process although some sections are under the impression that the answer to the conflict lies in a military solution. . He emphasized that the ‘government is not for a military solution’.

‘The APRC has been meeting practically every week and more than 90 percent of its work has been cleared-up although a few issues remain to be resolved’, the Minister explained.

He said that now that the talks have entered their concluding stages he hoped to invite the UNP and the TNA too to the deliberations. Currently 13 political parties participate in the talks.

Meanwhile senior public service sources in the Eastern Province said that seasonal celebrations were conducted to a degree for the first time since 1983 in the Batticaloa District last December. Life in the district, they said, is steadily returning to normal and a sound pointer to this is the fact that people are beginning to get around at night. Over the past two decades or more this did not happen. Now, normalcy is fast returning and the law and order situation has vastly improved. However, heavy rains are currently lashing the district.