Tags:
Journalism of Courage
COLOMBO, FEB 11: Norwegian foreign minister Knut Vollebaek is scheduled to arrive here next Wednesday to discuss the possibility of negotiations between Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
A statement from the Sri Lankan foreign ministry said Vollebaek would hold talks with President Chandrika Kumaratunga, foreign minister Lakshman Kadirgamar and opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe.
On his agenda is "the possibility of Norway assisting discussions to take place between the Sri Lanka government and the LTTE aimed at resolving the ethnic problem".
The foreign ministry said Vollebaek will be briefed on the current political situation and would also hold discussions on issues of mutual concern, "especially related to co-operation in the United Nations".
Norway has been attempting to bring the Lankan government and the LTTE to the negotiating table since 1998, it was revealed recently. Representatives of the Norwegian government have held discussions with members of the Sri Lankangovernment as well as the LTTE theoretician Anton Balasingham, who has been living in London since mid-1999. Last month, Norway’s state secretary for Development Co-operation and Human Rights Leiv Lunde also met Tamil parliamentarians during a visit here.
The politicians, who represent the moderate face of Tamil nationalism, told him that a Sinhala consensus on a political solution was the necessary first step for talks with the LTTE.
However, Norway may seek to restrict its role only to assisting talks between the government and the LTTE, leaving the rest — like the working out of a consensus — to the Sri Lankan polity.
President Kumaratunga, who has promised to present to Parliament within three months her proposals for constitutional reform, including power-sharing with the ethnic Tamils, is at the moment engaged in hammering out an agreement over these proposals between her government and the moderate Tamil parties.
Talks with the United National Party are to follow. Negotiations with the LTTEwill come last and it is for this, that Norwegian assistance is being sought.
However, no meeting ground between the government and the LTTE is yet obvious. Kumaratunga would ideally like the discussions to revolve around her proposals. On the other hand, the LTTE has apparently made it clear that negotiations can be based only on the principle of the recognition of the right of self-determination for the Tamil people and of their right to an identified homeland whose territorial integrity would be guaranteed.
