Wednesday, Jun 19, 2002
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By Nirupama Subramanian
Bernard Goonetilleke, who heads the Prime Minister's Peace Secretariat, travelled to LTTE-controlled northern Sri Lanka for a meeting with its political wing leader, S.P. Tamilselvan, to resolve differences between the two sides on the implementation of the ceasefire agreement. The LTTE maintains it will not agree to direct talks till the provisions of the truce agreement are fully implemented. An official of the Norwegian Government, which is facilitating the peace process, accompanied Mr. Goonetilleke. One of the main LTTE complaints is that the armed forces had not vacated public buildings, schools and temples in the northeast, though they should have begun doing so by the 30th day of the truce coming into effect. A statement from the Peace Secretariat today said that following Mr. Goonetilleke's visit, the two sides had agreed on a joint team "of Government representatives, the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission and other interested parties" to visit the buildings in question to ascertain the position. The two sides also discussed the still unresolved matter of public transport on the LTTE-controlled stretch of a recently reopened highway connecting northern Sri Lanka with the rest of the country. "On the larger aspects of the peace process, views were exchanged on the deproscription of the LTTE, negotiations between the two parties and other confidence-building measures intended to further strengthen the confidence of the people in the peace efforts," the statement added. The Government had announced that talks would be held by mid-May in Thailand. The date was later revised to June and then early July. But a London-datelined report in the pro-LTTE Tamil daily, Sudar Oli, today said it would be "nothing less than a miracle" if the talks took place according to the time-table the Government had in mind. Quoting sources "close to the LTTE", it denied reports that the two sides had finalised the agenda for talks. The agenda is to be finalised on the basis of a questionnaire that Norway has distributed to both sides, and the newspaper emphatically asserted that the LTTE had not replied and would not do so till the Government fully implemented the ceasefire agreement. The LTTE's reassertion of its stand came amid reports that its pointman for the peace process, the London-based Anton Balasingham, had been refusing to meet the Norwegian Deputy Foreign Minister, Vidar Helgesen, to discuss dates for the talks. The LTTE has also expressed unhappiness at the Government's assertion that the two sides would discuss a final solution to the ethnic conflict that has been raging in Sri Lanka over the last two decades, in Thailand. It wants the talks to focus only on discussions for an interim administration run by it in the northeast. Official sources said the Government had replied to the Norwegian questionnaire and was now awaiting the LTTE response. They said the Government had made it clear that while the interim administration would remain the focus of the Thailand talks, there was a need to "contextualise" it against a final solution. One of the suggestions from the Government has been that talks on a final solution should start as soon as the interim administration is formed. It has also pointed out a need to discuss elections for the interim administration after a fixed period of letting the LTTE run it.
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