PEACE SETTLEMENT IN SRI LANKA

Early day motion 786, tabled 12 February 1998 by Barry Gardiner (Labour). Signed by 41 members.

That this House notes the President of Sri Lanka's recent admission that her government has 'failed in the essential task of nation-building'; recalls the history of the past 50 years since independence where Sinhalese subjugation of the Tamil nation resulted in the Sinhala only language law, the pogroms against Tamils in Colombo in 1983 and the massacre of thousands of civilian Tamils through aerial bombardment of the Jaffna peninsula; and urges the Sinhalese government, in the spirit of their President's humble and contrite speech, to cease the current military action against the LTTE and enter into peace negotiations without preconditions.

Signatures by party: Labour 31, Liberal Democrat 6, Plaid Cymru 4.