The Hindu : LTTE counter-proposals by mid-Oct.

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Sep 19, 2003

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International

LTTE counter-proposals by mid-Oct.

By V.S. Sambandan

COLOMBO Sept. 18. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) today said that its "counter-proposals'' to the Sri Lankan Government would be ready by mid-October, according to the Norwegian facilitators of the peace process who met the LTTE's political wing leader, S.P. Tamilchelvan, in the rebel-held Kilinochchi this morning.

The Norwegian Deputy Foreign Minister, Vidar Helgesen, who met Mr. Tamilchelvan was quoted as telling journalists in the northern town that the Sri Lankan Government's proposals and the rebels' counterproposals "will together provide a basis for resuming the negotiations''.

Declining to give a time frame for resumption of talks, Mr. Helgesen reportedly said: "we will meet some time for planning, for doing technical preparations for the possibility of resuming talks''. The expectations were that the preparations for resumption of talks would start in mid-October.

It may be recalled that the LTTE had not accepted Colombo's offer for a Provisional Administrative Structure, which gave the rebels a majority stake in running the interim administration for the north and the east. Describing these as "failing to meet the aspirations of the Tamils'', the LTTE had said it would come out with its counter-proposals. The Tigers recently met constitutional experts from the Sri Lankan Tamil disapora in Paris recently and have planned another meeting with international experts in Ireland for later this month.

Erik Solheim, Oslo's special envoy for the peace process, Hans Brattskar, Norway's ambassador to Sri Lanka and Tomas Stangland, from the Norwegian embassy accompanied Mr. Helgesen during his visit.

Meanwhile, on the political front, the Sri Lankan President, Chandrika Kumaratunga, and the Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, have taken sharply opposing positions on the reported build-up of LTTE camps in the eastern Trincomalee district.

A political confrontation is in the offing as the President who heads the island's armed forces and the Prime Minister who commands a majority in Parliament are from two sharply opposed parties.

While the President has charged Mr. Wickremesinghe's administration of compromising the security of the island, the Prime Minister has taken the position that he had set in motion an international security net before the commencement of the peace process, after visits to India and the U.S, which had resulted in greater defence cooperation.

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