Rajapaksa calls on LTTE to end violence

UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 24 (UPI) -- The president of Sri Lanka said his government will not allow the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam terrorist group to continue threatening the country.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, during the U.N. General Assembly meetings in New York, said the LTTE organization must end its terrorist violence and forfeit any ongoing military ambitions. Rajapaksa said his government is willing to resume peace negotiations only when the LTTE renounces violence, the United Nations reported.

In January the Sri Lankan government pulled out of a cease-fire agreement with the LTTE, which maintains a stronghold in the north of the country. Since the collapse of the cease-fire deal, the Sri Lankan army has waged a major military campaign targeting the LTTE.

Rajapaksa says the LTTE separatist movement threatens the peace and stability of Sri Lanka. He called on leaders of the LTTE to end the violence.

"Our government would only be ready to talk to this illegal armed group when it is ready to commit itself to decommissioning of its illicit weapons and dismantling of its military capability, and return to the democratic fold," Rajapaksa said in a statement.