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| Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers to Attend Peace Talks |
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Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels have told the Norwegian peace facilitators that they would attend the proposed face to face talks with the government to be held later this month in Geneva. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Head of political wing S. P. Tamilselvan told reporters Thursday in the rebel held Kilinochchi that the group would attend the Oct. 28 and 29 talks with the government. He was speaking after Norway's special peace envoy Jon Hanssen-Bauer visited them in order to commit the rebel group to talks. Speaking on the security of the LTTE delegation, Tamilselvan said the delegation will be going only on the guarantees given by the international community. He also said that the travel arrangements and the agenda for the talks will be decided in the coming days. The rebel decision came after weeks of intense clashes with the military. The LTTE was accused of Monday's killing and injuring of more than 200 sailors in a suicide attack. On Wednesday they carried out a suicide attack on the Sri Lankan Navy facility at the southern port of Galle. Tamilselvan said that the Geneva talks would be the last opportunity for the international community in their bid to try and help Sri Lanka resolve its ethnic separatist conflict. He said the LTTE had discussed with Hanssen-Bauer the government's military offensive, rights violations, economic embargoes on Tamil regions and the continuous closure of the main A9 highway linking the northern town of Jaffna with the south of the country. The rebels told the Norwegian envoy that the international community should bring pressure on the government to stop aggression against them. The government blames the Tigers for their insincerity in adhering to the Norwegian backed ceasefire. It maintains that it reserves the right to attack the rebels when they continue to indulge in acts threatening national security. The counter accusations and violence since December 2005 had hampered the Norwegian efforts to revive the stalled peace negotiations. More than 64,000 people were killed in the conflict before 2002 when the two sides entered the ongoing truce. The talks will be the first since the two sides met in February in Geneva. The second round of talks proposed for April did not take place due to bickering between the two parties. (Xinhua News Agency October 20, 2006) |
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