Search the Internet          Tips

LTTE names four-member team for talks in Thailand

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam delegation that is slated to hold peace talks with the Sri Lankan government in Thailand in September includes chief negotiator Anton Balasingham, his wife Adele, V Rudrakumar, a legal adviser, and a 'rehabilitation and development expert', Dr Jay Maheswaran.

This was reported by the London-based weekly Tamil Guardian, quoting LTTE sources, in its recent issue.

The weekly also mentioned that the absence of any leader of the LTTE's political wing in the delegation is intriguing.

The team's composition shows that the guerrilla group is not yet willing to send any of its key functionaries outside the island for talks, even though it keeps in touch with the government's peace secretariat and truce monitors on a daily basis through political wing leader S P Tamilselvan.

While political aspects will have to be dealt with by Balasingham, the other two negotiators have apparently been chosen to take care of legal and technical matters involved in the development and administrative issues that are likely to figure at the talks.

Meanwhile, the rebel group has termed as "unacceptable" any move by the government to merely suspend the ban on the outfit instead of lifting it completely ahead of the talks.

Sri Lankan state television had said on Monday that the ban imposed in 1998 would be lifted temporarily for a month to facilitate commencement of talks, but would be re-imposed if the LTTE walked away from the table. LTTE officials retorted that any time-bound de-proscription was unacceptable.

The government and the LTTE are set to begin historic peace talks in the presence of Norwegian facilitators at an undisclosed venue in Thailand on September 16. The first three-day sitting will be a preliminary session to discuss day-to-day problems faced by the people in the island's northeast.

The Tamil Guardian said the talks would begin with an opening statement to the press by the chief negotiators for both sides and Norwegian officials, and would be a closed-door session thereafter.

The talks, LTTE sources told the newspaper, would focus on 'urgent existential problems of the people of the north and east'. These include the issue of resettlement and rehabilitation of a large number of internally displaced people, release of political detainees, and demilitarization of high-security zones in the Tamil areas.

In its editorial, the paper, which is believed to reflect the LTTE's thinking, welcomed the United National Front government's moves to curb President Chandrika Kumaratunga's powers by a proposed 18th constitutional amendment.

PTI

Tell us what you think of this report