NEWSSri Lankan court rejects petitions against truce agreement
COLOMBO, March 6 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka's Appeal Court on Tuesday rejected three petitions filed against the February 2002 ceasefire agreement between Tamil Tiger rebels and the government.
The main left party, the JVP (People's Liberation Front), the all Buddhist Monk party, the JHU (Heritage Party) and a majority Sinhalese community nationalist organization had filed the petitions, seeking a court order declaring the agreement as one violating the country's constitution and therefore invalid.
The Appeal Court however refused to issue the writ, citing thatthe petitions had no legal foundation, court officials said.
The petitioners had cited then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Velupillai Prabakaran as respondents.
The February 2002 agreement was the first step in the Norwegian backed process towards solving the island's near 3-decade-old ethnic separatist conflict.
More than 68,000 people have been killed in the conflict since the mid-1980s.
The 5-year-old ceasefire has largely held despite a serious escalation of violence since December 2005.
Both sides whilst accusing the other side for ceasefire breaches are reluctant to withdraw from the agreement.