Statement by the Press Secretary/Director-General for Press and Public Relations, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on the Situation in Sri Lanka

May 18, 2000

The Government of Japan is gravely concerned about the current situation in the Jaffna peninsula of Sri Lanka. The Government of Japan strongly urges both the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to exert the utmost self-restraint and take reasonable steps to prevent the continued fighting from causing sufferings to the ordinary people.
The Government of Japan eagerly hopes that the two parties will, through negotiations under Norway's facilitation, surmount the present crisis to take a definite step toward a peaceful solution of their ethnic conflicts.

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