Lanka finally agrees to sit and talk

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“Once the talks begin, a ceasefire will be a step in the process. As the talks proceed we can come to an agreement on various matters related to war. After all, this is the whole purpose of holding talks,” he said.

Meanwhile, Tamil political parties have expressed different viewson the LTTE’s unilateral ceasefire. While a majority of Tamil parties wanted the government to respond positively to the LTTE’s goodwill measure , former North-eastern Chief Minister and EPRLF leader, A Varatharaja Perumal said the ceasefire call need not be taken seriouly by the Tamil parties.

“The LTTE should agree for negotiations and come before the negotiation table before crying for a unilateral ceasefire. If they are really sincere and honest in negotiating a political settlement, they should should first stop all anti-people activities. The LTTE should also open the Jaffna-Vavuniya Main Road for the use of public,” he said. Telo leader N Srikantha said the government should first respond positively to the ceasefire offer made by the LTTE. To ensure effective ceasefire, the government troops should also be withdrawn to barracks, he added.

However Justice Minister, Batty Weerakoon said that talks with the LTTE is a waste of time. “The most meaningful thing for the moment is that we must go ahead with the constitution. Thereafter we can see how the LTTE will react to it. Once this is done, I am certain that the LTTE will be isolated and that is what the LTTE fears,” he added.

Secondly, it is proposed to do away with the element of reciprocity in the first stage of the schedule as envisaged earlier. Instead, the new line of thought is to get both the government as well as the LTTE to agree and acknowledge the first stage of de-escalation schedule together simultaneously.

Thirdly, norway has mooted the notion of an international committee to monitor the preliminary phase of the de-escalation schedule as agreed to by both the parties.

The three-tier revised de-escalation schedule is being seen as a sign of Norway’s appreciation of the objections expressed by the government in accepting the original de-escalation schedule. The government wanted the moratorium on violence to be declared first and also was wary of being asked to remove the ban first.

Now that these constraints are tentatively removed, it is hoped that Colombo would find it possible to adhere to the peace process in a constructive and positive manner. But it remains to be seen as to whether the LTTE would accept this amended schedule, but given the extra-ordinary commitment displayed by the LTTE towards the peace process by declaring a unilateral ceasefire, the diplomatic sources are optimistic that the Tigers would be accommodatively flexible.