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LTTE sending feelers for talks, says Colombo

B. Muralidhar Reddy

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka on Tuesday said that through Norway, the official facilitator of peace talks, it has received "positive signals" from LTTE on resumption of the stalled dialogue.

Policy Planning Minister and Defence spokesperson, Keheliya Rambukwella told a news conference here in response to a question that the Government has been conveyed in "some form a commitment" from the LTTE supremo, Velupillai Prabhakaran that the outfit is ready for talks on terms of the Government.

In the wake of the September 12 announcement of the Sri Lanka Co-Chairs in Brussels that the Mahinda Rajapaksa Government and the LTTE are ready for "unconditional talks," Colombo had taken exception to some of the "factual accuracies" in the statement and maintained that dialogue can not re-start unless some of its "concerns" were met.

Sri Lanka Government wanted a firm commitment from Mr. Prabhakaran that fresh round of talks would not be utilised by his organisation for military gains. In addition it wanted the international community to devise a mechanism for credible cessation of hostilities and wanted the privilege of deciding the venue and date of talks by the democratically elected sovereign Government. Last week the Norwegian Ambassador to Sri Lanka had travelled to Kilinochchi to discuss issues raised by the Government.

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