Anton in Colombo to meet Prabhakaran for dialogue

The highest-level Tamil Tiger official in more than a decade to pass through Colombo airport arrived on Tuesday to meet the rebel leader bef...

The highest-level Tamil Tiger official in more than a decade to pass through Colombo airport arrived on Tuesday to meet the rebel leader before sitting down with the government for talks to end two decades of war.

Anton Balasingham flew from London to the island’s international airport — attacked just 15 months ago by the Tigers — and then was bundled on to a Sri Lankan Air Force helicopter to Wanni, a rebel-controlled area in the north.

Balasingham, the chief negotiator for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), will meet rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, something the Tigers said had to happen before the next round of talks could begin on October 31 in Thailand.

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Balasingham is considered Prabhakaran’s closest adviser. The last time such a senior LTTE official was in Colombo was in 1990. Balasingham will also meet government officials who will travel to Wanni to discuss demining and the setting up of a joint task force that will identify urgent rehabilitation needs and the agencies that will carry them out.

‘‘That also needs to be done before the next talks in Thailand,’’ said one diplomat.

Balasingham was accompanied by his Australian-born wife, Adele, the secretary for the Tiger side during the peace talks, but it was not known how long they would stay in Wanni or if they would go directly from Sri Lanka to Thailand for the talks.

Both parties ended the first round of talks with an appeal for aid to rebuild areas devastated by the war that killed 64,000 people, displaced thousands and ruined the economy. (Reuters)

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