COLOMBO, NOV 15: Sri Lanka has sent its foreign minister to South Africa for talks aimed at preventing the island's Tamil Tiger separatists establishing a base there, a press report here said on Sunday.Lakshman Kadirgamar left for Pretoria on Saturday on a mission aimed at blocking the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) shifting their international secretariat from London to South Africa, the Sunday Times said.There was no immediate word from the Sri Lankan foreign office about the unannounced visit of the minister, who warned earlier that the LTTE was seeking the support of the Indian community in South Africa to raise money.The foreign ministry said earlier this month that it believed the LTTE was shifting its operations from London to South Africa because of new anti-terrorism laws in Britain.There has been no reaction from the LTTE to the ministry's claims. The US government last year designated the LTTE as a ``foreign terrorist organisation,'' making it illegal for theguerrillas to raise money there for their separatist war at home. Three South African diplomats based in New Delhi were here last week for talks with officials and non-governmental organisations following calls from Colombo to investigate Tiger links in their country.The issue of the LTTE has strained relations between the two countries but the Government insisted that it was not confronting the South African government. ``We are just trying to say to them there is a serious problem,'' the foreign ministry here said two weeks ago.The visiting South African diplomats said last week that Pretoria was investigating reports that Tiger rebels may have links with officials of President Nelson Mandela' s government. South African diplomat C H Qomoyi said Pretoria was investigating charges that the LTTE was operating from his country. ``For us what is important is our relations with governments and not with any group,'' Qomoyi said, adding the allegations of Tiger rebels acquiring helicopters from South Africawere ``unfounded.''``Sri Lanka is more important to us than LTTE politics.'' However, he added that LTTE guerrillas may be drawing support from members of the Indian community in South Africa, a concern raised by Sri Lanka's foreign minister earlier.Meanwhile, Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga has said she is ready for talks with the LTTE without a prior agreement on a ceasefire, if the rebels settled for a stipulated time-frame for negotiations, the state-owned Sunday Observer reported today.``We are prepared to talk to them (LTTE) within a stipulated time-frame and decide on the ceasefire depending on the progress of the talks,'' Chandrika told a delegation of the leaders of the moderate Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF). Significantly, Chandrika did not repeat her earlier conditions which included the token surrender of arms and renunciation of the demand for a separate state by the LTTE.
