The Hindu : Ranil, Balasingham to review progress in peace process

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Nov 15, 2002

International

International

Ranil, Balasingham to review progress in peace process

By V.S. Sambandan

COLOMBO. NOV. 14. The Sri Lankan Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, and the chief negotiator of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Anton S. Balasingham, are scheduled to meet in Oslo later this month to "discuss political matters'' relating to the ongoing peace process.

The meeting is scheduled for November 25, during a donor's conference aimed at raising international financial support for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the battle-scarred Sri Lankan North-East. Mr. Wickremesinghe and Mr. Balasingham "will discuss the progress made so far in the peace process'', the Cabinet spokesman and head of Colombo's team of negotiators, G.L. Peiris, told a press conference today.

The political discussions come immediately after Colombo and the Tigers agreed to form a sub-committee on political matters at the recently-concluded second round of talks in Thailand. The third round is scheduled to be held in Oslo between December 2 and 5.

This would be the first time that a Sri Lankan Premier will be meeting the LTTE's chief ideologue outside the island. During the early 1990s, the then President, the late Ranasinghe Premadasa, held peace talks with an LTTE delegation, led by Mr. Balasingham, in Colombo. Mr. Wickremesinghe, who, as a Minister in the Premadasa Cabinet, was member of the Government delegation led by the late A.C.S. Hameed. Those talks failed and a suicide bomber assassinated Premadasa during the 1993 `May Day' rally in Colombo.

The donor's conference, Prof. Peiris said, was aimed at "converting the international goodwill behind the island's peace process into money''. The funds raised at the Oslo conference, he said, would be used to finance crucial infrastructure requirements of the North-East such as roads, hospitals and sanitation. The U.S. Deputy Secretary of State, Richard Armitage, and the British Minister for Overseas Development, Claire Short, are expected to represent their countries.

The international community, Prof. Peiris said, was "uniformly supportive'' of the ongoing peace process. Describing his recent visit to Australia as "encouraging", he said the financial support for rebuilding the North-East was not only confined to Governments, but the overseas private sector had also pledged backing for the peace process.

`Opposition won't be excluded'

Asked to comment on the recent proposal by the President, Chandrika Kumaratunga, to form a commission for ethnic reconciliation, Prof. Peiris said there was no question of excluding the Opposition from the peace process.

However, he said that in terms of the "definitive document'' on bipartisan political co-operation — the Liam Fox Agreement initialled when the Opposition party, the People's Alliance, led by Ms. Kumaratunga was in power — the Opposition was being kept fully informed of the progress of the talks. The agreement, he said, did not provide for inclusion of the Opposition in the decision-making process.

Asserting that no solution would be thrust upon the country, Prof. Peiris said all decisions taken at the Thailand talks will be brought before Parliament, and then before the public at a referendum in accordance with the island's Constitution.

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Ranil, Balasingham to review progress in peace process