Sri Lankans Hand Over 1.1 million Signatures for a Landmine Ban

(Wednesday 18 December 2002 Colombo, Sri Lanka)

In January 2002, as a part of its advocacy events, the Sri Lanka Campaign to Ban Landmines (Inter Religious Peace Foundation) launched a “Citizens Anti-landmines petition” aimed at obtaining 2 million signatures from citizens appealing to the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) to accede to the Ottawa Treaty, and calling upon the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to stop using antipersonnel landmines. By November 2002, this initiative had collected over one million signatures and represented a cross section of the Sri Lankan society (including those in the LTTE controlled areas).

The GoSL and the LTTE consented to giving 30 minutes of their time during the “peace talks” on 4th December 2002 to enable the Sri Lanka Campaign to present the said petition, and consequently, Ven. Madampagama Assaji Thero, Rev. Freddy de Alwis and Mr. Saliya Edirisinghe, National Coordinator, Secretary and Assistant Secretary, respectively, of the Inter Religious Peace Foundation (SLCBL), traveled to Oslo to hand over the said petition to the GoSL and the LTTE.

At the presentation of the petition, Ven. Madampagama Assaji Thero reminded the parties of the overwhelming appeal by the citizens of Sri Lanka to the GoSL to accede to the Ottawa Treaty, and to the LTTE to renounce the use of antipersonnel landmines. In the context of the LTTE renouncing the use of antipersonnel landmines, Ven. Assaji Thero drew attention to the “Deed of Commitment” under the “Geneva Call” process.

In reply, the chief negotiators of the GoSL and the LTTE, Minister Peiris and Dr. Anton Balasingham, respectively, explained that they were seriously considering the renunciation of the use of antipersonnel landmines.