LTTE deadlocked Norwegian process: Chandrika

By Nirupama Subramanian

COLOMBO, NOV. 13. The Sri Lankan President, Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunga, today said the Norwegian facilitation for peace talks had stalled since June because the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) believed her Government was on its way out and accused the separatist group of contributing to the efforts to topple it.

``That is the only reason it has halted, though the LTTE is giving out various lies,'' Ms. Kumaratunga said at a press conference after releasing her People's Alliance manifesto for the December 5 Parliamentary election today.

She charged that the LTTE had, through its ``agents'' offered money to ruling party members to vote against her Government. Ms. Kumaratunga said the Norwegian role in Sri Lanka would continue to remain in place after the election, but emphasised that the Government would not talk only to the LTTE as some Tamil parties were now demanding.

She said the Government would talk to the LTTE to end the war, but finding a political solution to the ethnic conflict, to which the PA remained committed, would mean talking to the ``entire'' Tamil and Muslim population of Sri Lanka.

The PA manifesto declares that the Government would continue its ``three-pronged'' strategy to end the war, namely, ``the eradication of terrorism, the introduction of constitutional amendments towards achieving a political solution and a programme of national reconciliation''.

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Section  : International
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