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Co-Chairs to meet on Sri Lanka

B. Muralidhar Reddy

COLOMBO: Norwegian Minister and Sri Lanka peace envoy Eric Solheim is to host a meeting of the Sri Lanka Co-chairs — EU, Japan, the U.S. and Norway — on June 26.

The Co-chairs, representing 56 donor countries, would be meeting at a juncture when the undeclared war between the military and the LTTE has escalated beyond any one’s control and there are dim chances of dialogue.

Reflecting the volatile ground situation, the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) last week informed the Government and the LTTE that it was no longer prepared to “make determinations” on complaints of ceasefire violations. However, it would continue to entertain complaints.

A Norwegian Government statement released here said the meeting would “assess the current situation in the Sri Lankan peace process”. The Co-Chairs met in Washington in November.

“It will be a working meeting and follows several recent high-level visits to Sri Lanka,” said Mr. Solheim. “The purpose of the meeting is to share information and views. The Co-Chairs will explore ways and means in which the group, as a whole or as individual countries, can continue helping the parties to cease violence and return to the negotiating table.” The U.S. will be represented by Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher. Special Representative Yasushi Akashi will represent Japan. Director-General Andreas Michaelis will represent the E.U. Presidency and Acting Deputy Director-General James Morran will represent the European Commission.

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