Date:24/05/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/05/24/stories/2006052405481600.htm

National

New Delhi hopes Colombo will show flexibility

Diplomatic Correspondent

NEW DELHI: India believes that if the current "tit-for-tat" violence between Colombo and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam continues, it is a matter of time before an all-out war breaks out.

Official sources on Tuesday also hoped that the Sri Lankan Government would not greet with triumph a European Union ban on the LTTE, but would show flexibility, along with the Tigers, in agreeing to a second round of peace talks in Geneva.

India felt that it was "still worthwhile" for both sides to make concessions to ensure a return to negotiations. New Delhi was specially concerned about the plight of civilians who invariably get entangled in a conflict situation.

Pointing out that some 2,000 Sri Lankan Tamils had already landed in Tamil Nadu, sources revealed that several hundred more were waiting for a chance to flee the violence that had gripped the island nation.

Asked what India could do in the current situation, they said that New Delhi continued to support Norway's role of a peacemaker. Norway's role would become even more important in the wake of a ban on the Tigers by the European Union since Oslo was not part of the E.U.