Top Negotiators of S.Lankan Govt, Rebel Group to Meet

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, April 22, 2003

Top Negotiators of S.Lankan Govt, Rebel Group to Meet

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The top peace negotiators of the Sri Lankan government and the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels are to meet in London to discuss issues relating to the forthcoming peace talks, government sources said Monday.

Constitutional Affairs Minister G.L. Peiris, top government negotiator, has flown to London to meet Anton Balasingham, top negotiator for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels late on Monday.

Their meeting comes ahead of the seventh round of peace talks between the two warring parties to be held in Thailand from April 29 to May 2.

The LTTE rebels last week expressed dismay over their exclusionfrom a key international donors meeting in Washington hosted by the US State Department.

The meeting attended by Sri Lanka's international donors was a precursor to a large donor conference to be held in Japan on June 9 and 10.

Washington said the LTTE rebels were excluded due to the US government's ban on the organization as a foreign terrorist group since 1997.

The LTTE rebels threatened to pull out of the donor meeting in Tokyo which is expected to result in large amount of aid towards reconstruction and rehabilitation of the war-battered north and east of the country.

The two sides have held six rounds of peace talks since last September. The Norwegian-backed peace process is aimed at ending the long-drawn-out armed ethnic conflict that has claimed over 64,000 lives since 1983.

The LTTE rebels have dropped their demand for an independent Tamil homeland in the north and east and agreed to settle for regional autonomy under a federal system within one country.

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