Norway envoy for Sri Lanka, India for talks

Norwegian special envoy Jon Hanssen-Bauer will reach Sri Lanka Sunday to lay the groundwork for talks between the government and the Tamil Tigers, even while India has sought an early resumption of dialogue between the two parties.  Hanssen-Bauer's trip follows the announcement in Colombo Wednesday that Tamil Tigers chief Velupillai Prabhakaran had assured the government that his group was ready to enter into 'sincere talks' to find a solution to the ethnic conflict.IANS learns that Hanssen-Bauer will meet government leaders in Colombo and then travel to Kilinochchi in the north to meet leaders of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to know their minds on the possible venue and dates when they can meet and take forward their repeatedly interrupted peace dialogue.

As and when the security situation improves, Norwegian International Development Minister Erik Solheim will also proceed to Sri Lanka for a meeting with Prabhakaran, the man at the centre of the nearly quarter century long conflict.Solheim was the last international personality to meet Prabhakaran in January this year. That meeting had produced hope that the spiraling violence would die down. But that did not happen, and Sri Lanka is now enveloped in the worst conflict phase since a Norway-brokered ceasefire was signed by the LTTE and Colombo in 2002.

The decisions on visits by Hanssen-Bauer and Solheim follow some hectic Norwegian diplomacy and a meeting of the international support group on Sri Lanka in Washington Wednesday, all aimed at ending a violence spree that has claimed hundreds of lives this year and dislodged hundreds of thousands from their homes in the island's northeast.India, which is in touch with all international players, is also pushing for early talks. Through the day Wednesday, various officials and politicians here conveyed the message to three visiting Sri Lankan Tamil politicians.

Minister of State for External Affairs E. Ahamed and Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran in particular emphasized the need for all violence to end and for negotiations to resume in Sri Lanka. Ahamed was particularly concerned about the increasing attacks on Muslims in the island's northeast.This was conveyed during discussions with Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) president V. Anandasangaree, D. Sitharthan of the People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOT) and T. Sritharan of the Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF). All three groups oppose the LTTE.

The trio was also told that New Delhi was doing its best, without much fanfare, to prepare a possible consensus between the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party and the main opposition United National Party on the need to devolve powers to the minorities.India, the visitors were told, would under no circumstances agree to any break up of Sri Lanka. But it wanted Colombo to give a 'reasonable solution', based on the federal system of governance, to the Tamil minority so as to end the ethnic conflict that has left over 65,000 dead since 1983.

In their discussions, Anandasangaree, Sitharthan and Sritharan blamed both LTTE and Colombo for the sufferings of the ordinary people caught in the conflict and said that any forward movement in the peace process should lay emphasis on democracy and a stop to all killings in the island's northeast.The Indian thinking was similarly conveyed earlier to five Sri Lankan MPs belonging to the pro-LTTE Tamil National Alliance (TNA) when they visited New Delhi.India strongly backs the driver's seat Norway occupies in the internationally supported Sri Lankan peace process. It is believed that Solheim will stop over in New Delhi after he visits Colombo and Kilinochchi.