LTTE top brass discuss peace

Tamil Tiger chief negotiator Anton Balasingham arrived in Sri Lanka today and immediately went in for a closed door meeting with Tiger supre...

Tamil Tiger chief negotiator Anton Balasingham arrived in Sri Lanka today and immediately went in for a closed door meeting with Tiger supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran and discussed the upcoming peace talks in Japan, rebel radio said.

The Voice of Tigers radio said the two held talks for three hours at a secret location in the north-eastern district of Mullaitivu as Balasingham returned to the island from London. The two sides were expected to discuss nitty-gritty issues such as what form a federal system of government will take at a sixth round of peace talks in Japan that begin on March 18.

‘‘He will probably stay here until the peace talks,’’ an official at the Norwegian embassy in Colombo said. Meanwhile, without giving any details, the Tiger radio said: ‘‘They discussed the peace process and the talks to be held in Japan this month.’’ Balasingham travelled in a Sri Lankan Airlines airbus which landed at the Colombo International Airport which was bombed by the Tigers in July 2001.

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This is Balasingham’s third visit to Sri Lanka since the Norwegian-backed peace process in February last year. However, recent truce violations have put the agreement under strain. Pro-rebel media have indicated the Tigers are unhappy at the slow pace of rebuilding in the war-torn country but observers accuse the rebels of continuing to recruit children.

Balasingham ended a three-year-old self-imposed exile in Europe in March to travel to the Wanni in a sea plane that landed in an irrigation tank.

His second visit was in October last year.

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