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Sri Lankan parties for resumption of talks

V.S. Sambandan

COLOMBO: An all-party meeting convened by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse on Thursday evening unanimously decided that steps should be taken to resume "immediate talks" between the Government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

"The parties agreed that there was a need to resume talks immediately and that steps should be taken to that effect," a senior presidential aide told The Hindu .

The all-party meeting was called by Mr. Rajapakse as part of his efforts to work towards a southern consensus on resuming the stalled peace talks with the LTTE.

Key political leaders including Ranil Wickremesinghe, Leader of Opposition and former Prime Minister; Somawanse Amarasinghe, leader of Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna; G.L. Peiris, former chief negotiator; and leaders from other political parties participated in the meeting.

The key issues

The key issues on which the President, Mr. Rajapakse is seeking a consensus include the manner in which the currently-stalled peace process could be resumed. Thursday's meeting is just ahead of a scheduled visit by the Norwegian Minister for International Development, Erik Solheim, in what is seen as a critical attempt at restarting the peace talks, which remain stalled since the LTTE's unilateral pullout in 2003.

Earlier in the day, the Government spokesperson on the peace process, Nimal Siripala de Silva, said the Government hoped for a breakthrough in the deadlock on resuming direct negotiations with the LTTE during Mr. Solheim's visit. The Norwegian Minister is scheduled to arrive in Sri Lanka on January 23. He will meet President Mahinda Rajapakse, in Colombo and the LTTE leader V. Prabakaran and the LTTE's chief negotiator, Anton S. Balasingham, in rebel-held northern Sri Lanka.

The immediate deadlock is over the venue in which the proposed talks to discuss the implementation aspects of the ceasefire agreement. Meanwhile in continued attacks on Sri Lankan security forces in eastern Sri Lanka, three policemen and a civilian were killed in a claymore blast by suspected LTTE cadres, the Army said. In another incident in the eastern Trincomalee district, an explosive device, suspected to be a bicycle bomb, injured LTTE cadres, the army said.

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