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Unconditional talks, say Co-Chairs

B. Muralidhar Reddy

No word yet from Colombo, LTTE to the news from Brussels

COLOMBO: In a dramatic breakthrough, Co-Chairs of the Tokyo Donor Conference on Sri Lanka announced in Brussels on Tuesday that the Sri Lankan Government and the LTTE had agreed for "unconditional talks" at Oslo in October.

The announcement, which spread cheer across the strife-torn nation, came in the form of a statement by the Co-Chairs at the end of their review meeting on the situation in Sri Lanka. The Co-Chairs, representing a group of 58 donor countries, consist of Norway (official facilitator of peace talks), the European Union, the U.S. and Japan.

The willingness to re-start the stalled dialogue came after four months of renewed hostilities that left hundreds dead and over two lakh persons displaced. There was no word yet from either Colombo or the Tigers to the news from Brussels.

The Co-Chairs statement welcomed the "expression of willingness" of both the parties as conveyed to the facilitator and said the two should cease violence immediately.

Deeply alarmed

"The parties should use this opportunity to show maximum flexibility regarding the arrangements to be proposed by the facilitator. The meeting should take place urgently in Oslo at the beginning of October, to be agreed to by the parties. The Co-Chairs will meet at the end of October to review progress of the talks."

The Co-Chairs are deeply alarmed by the recent deliberate violations of the Ceasefire Agreement by the parties. These have escalated violence and resulted in massive and widespread human suffering, including the abuse of human rights, the displacement of innocent citizens, a humanitarian crisis and an exodus of refugees to India," the statement said.

It said the political challenges of the north and east cannot be resolved through war and urged the parties to resume negotiation and show real political commitment to achieve a political solution based on the previous six rounds of negotiation.

"There should be no change to the specific arrangements for the north and east which could endanger the achievement of peace. The legitimate interests and aspirations of all communities, including the Tamil, Muslims and Sinhala communities must be accommodated as part of a political settlement."

The Co-Chairs said the LTTE must abide by all agreements, renounce terrorism and violence and must show that it is willing to make the compromises needed for a political solution within a united Sri Lanka. Colombo must ensure its military abides by the Ceasefire Agreement and implement the pledges from the Geneva meeting held in February 2006.

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