COLOMBO: Sri Lanka on Thursday allowed Norwegian special envoy Jon Hanssen-Bauer to go ahead with his visit to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam headquarters in Kilinochchi and asked him to convey specific requests from the Government related to humanitarian issues.

Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa told a meeting of Asian envoys based here that new steps by the Government to combat terrorism would not come in the way of either the Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) or the Norwegian mediation.

Early talks sought

Mr. Rajapaksa told the envoys that he had instructed the concerned persons to communicate to Mr. Hanssen-Bauer the desire of the Government for an early dialogue with the LTTE.

Mr. Hanssen-Bauer was advised by the Government last week to postpone his scheduled visit to Kilinochchi on Monday pending a review of relations between Colombo and the Tamil Tigers in the aftermath of the abortive attempt on the life of Defence Secretary Gothabaya Rajapaksa on December 1.

The Norwegian special envoy met Palitha Kohona, Secretary General of the Sri Lanka Peace Secretariat, for a discussion prior to his visit to Kilinochchi on Friday.

An official statement said Dr. Kohona asked Mr. Bauer to tell the LTTE that it should allow approximately 4,000 private traders in the Jaffna peninsula to operate and sell whatever they wanted without intimidation.

Mr. Hanssen-Bauer has been asked to get an immediate response to the Government proposal to send a convoy of urgent relief supplies through the A9 route and the Muhamalai checkpoint to Jaffna. The statement said the Government would be happy to discuss any issues the LTTE might have in relation to the proposal. The LTTE had not given a formal response to the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) that conveyed the Government proposal to them over two weeks ago.

The statement said the LTTE should give an immediate response to the proposal to create a safe haven for Internally Displaced Persons in Vaharai. The Government had conveyed this proposal to the LTTE through the SLMM some weeks ago and did not have a positive response.

Proposals of concern

It said Mr. Bauer agreed that the above proposals were of immediate concern and confirmed that he would carry these requests to the LTTE. Dr. Kohona stated that the Government was ready for negotiations.

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