The Hindu : A precursor to a breakdown?

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Dec 27, 2002

International

International

A precursor to a breakdown?

By V.S. Sambandan

COLOMBO. DEC. 26. The continued difficulties over the issue of resettling the internally displaced persons (IDPs) and the insistence by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) that this "humanitarian concern'' be addressed urgently could well be a precursor to a possible breakdown of talks, a senior military analyst has cautioned.

Referring to the chain of events during the month — the Tigers' demand for taking up resettlement issues, the abductions and killings of non-LTTE members — the analyst told The Hindu that "the doings of the LTTE in the recent past points to a possible breakdown in the peace talks".

On the sensitive issue of linking the resettlement of IDPs to de-escalation in the north, he said: "As the ceasefire agreement provides for maintaining the `forward defence lines' under the ceasefire, the Government should not have even entertained such thoughts in the first place".

"This could be cited by the Tigers as a setback to the peace process," the analyst said, adding that "the killings of non-LTTE party members and the ex-militants who were working with the Army" could all be signals of an impending breakdown in the talks.

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