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Sri Lankan parties ask President to resume talks with LTTE

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

New Delhi, Jan 20, IRNA
Sri Lanka-Parties-LTTE
Sri Lankan political parties have urged President Mahinda Rajapakse to resume talks with the Tamil Tiger rebels using the good offices of the Norwegian facilitator.

"At an all-party meeting, parties have urged the President to resume talks with the LTTE as early as possible. The parties have also given President Rajapakse the responsibility of taking a decision with regard to the ongoing crisis on the venue for such talks," President's media co-ordinator Chandrapala Liyanage said in a telephonic interview to a leading news agency United News of India, here.

All the parties, except the four-party Tamil National Alliance (TNA) which has 21 members in the 225-member parliament were invited for the meeting.

The all-party conference was called by Rajapakse to arrive at "a common stand" on future talks with the Tamil rebels.

Although the government and the LTTE have agreed to hold direct talks on strengthening the implementation mechanism of the shaky truce, they are at logger-heads in deciding the venue.

The government said it was ready to hold talks in an Asian nation, but the LTTE has said first round of talks should be held in a European nation, preferably in Oslo.

The meeting comes in wake of the visit by Norwegian Minister of International Development Erik Solheim, who is also the Minister in- charge of Norwegian facilitation in Sri Lanka. He is scheduled to arrive in Colombo on January 23 on a four-day visit.

Solheim is scheduled to meet Rajapakse and LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran mainly on resuming direct talks between the parties on the effective implementation of the deteriorating ceasefire agreement.

LTTE's London-based chief negotiator and political advisor, Anton Balasingham is also scheduled to visit Wanni next week to assist the elusive rebel leader at the scheduled meeting with Solheim on January 25 in a fresh bid to resume direct talks.

Government spokesman earlier in the day told reporters in Colombo the government welcomed Balasingham's visit as a positive move to break the prolonged deadlock between the parties.

Meanwhile the Lankan government welcomed the coming visit by LTTE's London-based chief negotiator and political advisor Anton Balasingham to Wanni, as a positive move to break the prolonged deadlock between the parties and to advance the Norwegian-brokered peace process.

Balasingham is scheduled to visit Wanni next week to assist the elusive rebel leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran at the scheduled meeting with Norway's special peace envoy, Erik Solheim on January 25 in a fresh bid to resume the direct talks between the parties on the effective implementation of the shaky truce.

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