SRI LANKA: New Norwegian peace envoy meets Tamil Tiger leaders in northern Sri Lanka.

Record ID: 349853

  • Title: SRI LANKA: New Norwegian peace envoy meets Tamil Tiger leaders in northern Sri Lanka.
  • Date: 6th April 2006
  • Summary: NORWEGIAN PEACE ENVOY JON HANSSEN-BAUER AND DELEGATES BEING WELCOMED BY TAMIL REBEL POLITICAL LEADERS/SHAKING HANDS X
  • Embargoed: 21st April 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Sri Lanka
  • Country: Sri Lanka
  • Reuters ID: LVAA859YCEZK124BHR0IXWP22NJE
  • Story Text: Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels received Norway's new peace envoy at their northern base on Wednesday (April 5), urging him to press the government to honour a pledge to disarm renegades they say are attacking them.
    The Tigers accuse the military of helping a breakaway former top commander called Col. Karuna of mounting attacks on their fighters, and have warned a new peace bid to shore up a 2002 truce and avoid a slide back to civil war hinges on disarming them.
    The government agreed at talks in Geneva in February to rein in armed groups the Tigers are complaining about, but now says it can't find anyone to disarm and Nordic truce monitors have urged the state to take a better look.
    "Today we discussed with the Norwegians our participation in the second round of Geneva talks. The government has so far not disarmed the paramilitaries in the north and the east. In fact after the first round of talks their activities have increased. Until we get a response to these issues we are not going to take a decision on whether we will take part in the second round of talks in Geneva," S.P. Thamilselvan, head of the Tigers' political wing, told reporters after his first meeting with new Norwegian envoy Jon Hanssen-Bauer.
    The rebels have said they will probably attend talks on April 19-21 in Geneva, but have warned there will be no progress without active disarmament.
    The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) are locked in a bitter feud with Karuna, who was widely seen as reclusive rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran's No.2 until a split in 2004.
    Analysts fear the feud could rekindle a spate of deadly attacks by suspected Tigers against the military in December and January and possibly spill over into a return to a civil war that killed more than 64,000 people before the ceasefire.
    Hanssen-Bauer, a peace adviser at Norway's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who has taken over day-to-day oversight of the peace process from Norwegian International Development Minister Erik Solheim, said the onus was on the Tigers and the government to make the talks work.
    "It is up to the parties to make use of the possibilities in Geneva. We cannot define the content or how it will happen. It is up to them to make it a useful event," said Hanssen-Bauer said before leaving the northern rebel stronghold of Kilinochchi.
    The Karuna issue is expected to dominate the April 19-21 talks in Switzerland. Karuna says his men will only disarm if the Tigers do too, and vows to fight back attacked.
    Karuna's band threatened this week to shoot dead Tiger supporters in the northern Jaffna peninsula unless they vacate homes and businesses appropriated from tens of thousands of Muslims the rebels forced to flee in the 1990s.
    The Tigers, who want to carve out a separate homeland for minority Tamils in Sri Lanka's north and east -- where they already run a de facto state -- dismissed the threat.
    Karuna's group denies having any links with the military, and says it plans to join the political mainstream and ultimately wants to displace the Tigers.
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