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Sri Lankan Peace Process Suffers Setback
The Norwegian-backed peace process in Sri Lanka suffered a major setback as separatist Tamil Tiger rebels have put forward new preconditions for the otherwise imminent talks between the two parties.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels said in a statement on Saturday after talks with Norwegian ambassador Jon Westborg that they will not enter peace talks with the government as an outlawed organization.
The Tigers rebels insist that government imposes reciprocal ceasefire before the commencement of peace talks.
They also wanted fuel and cement to be sent to areas controlled by them despite government's easing of economic sanctions imposed on the war zones.
Westborg, who crossed army lines and travelled to Wanni, LTTE headquarters in the north of the country on Friday held talks with LTTE's political wing leader Thamil Chelvam. Both sides discussed for six hours on Friday and another two hours the next day.
"It would be impossible for the government to lift a ban on a terrorist organization when it had appealed to all other countries to ban them," a government official said.
The government also fears that the LTTE rebels make use of ceasefire and peace talks to use cement to build bunkers and resume military operations against government forces.
The government has lifted curbs on some 25 essential commodities and allow them to be sent to the rebel-held areas.
As a gesture of reciprocation the LTTE rebels released four captives on Saturday when the Norwegian ambassador left Wanni for Colombo. One government soldier and three merchant sailors have been held by the rebels for four to eight years.
The government is yet to make a response to LTTE preconditions for peace talks until President Chandrika Kumaratunga is briefed by the Norwegian ambassador on the substance of his discussions with the rebels.
Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar told Parliament last week that the government would announce the date for peace talks with the LTTE rebels by the end of this month.
Diplomats here said that the hardening of LTTE stand has dampened government's hope for peace talks in the near future.
The LTTE has extended the unilateral ceasefire by one more month till April 24 and warned that they would break it if the government wound not respond positively. Their ceasefire began on Christmas Eve last year.
The government has maintained that a reciprocal ceasefire is possible only after talks between the two sides make substantive progress.
The LTTE rebels have been fighting against government forces since 1983 in the north and east for a separate Tamil state. More than 60,000 people have been killed in the bloody war.
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