Sri Lankan Peace Process Reached Hiatus: Opposition

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, June 21, 2002

Sri Lankan Peace Process Reached Hiatus: Opposition

Sri Lanka's main opposition party the People's Alliance (PA) said Friday that the government's peace process with separatist Tamil Tiger rebels has reached a period of hiatus.

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Sri Lanka's main opposition party the People's Alliance (PA) said Friday that the government's peace process with separatist Tamil Tiger rebels has reached a period of hiatus.

Former Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar told reporters herethat "We do not know where the process is heading."

Kadirgamar who spearheaded an international diplomatic offensive against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam(LTTE) rebels said that there was no indication of a date for talks brokered by the Norwegians to start in Thailand.

"We do not know if the talks will not be held at all," he said.

With the signing of a ceasefire agreement between the rebels and the government of the Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on February 22, it was initially expected that the talks would start in early May.

The dates are to be fixed raising doubts about the fate of the peace process in the country.

Government spokesman and Constitutional Affairs Minister G.L. Peiris said Thursday that the government was not unduly worried over the delay in talks.

"What is important is the stability of the process and not any particular date. But there should not be unnecessary or needless delays," Peiris said.

Kadirgamar added that the PA has not been invited to associate with the government at the forthcoming peace talks with the LTTE rebels.

"The question of PA being associated with talks is premature because at this time the PA is in a position where it does not know what the shape and structure and most importantly what the agenda is going to be," he said.

Kadirgamar said that even the government did not know where theprocess stood. "It may well be that the government is not really thinking about it. We cannot dig out information that does not exist and the government has not reached any kind of conclusion onthe agenda," he said.

Norwegian peace facilitators are trying to bring the governmentand the LTTE rebels to the negotiating table aimed at ending the 19-year ethnic conflict that has claimed over 64,000 lives.

The LTTE rebels have been fighting for a separate homeland for the ethnic minority Tamils in the north and east of the country.

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