THAILAND: SRI LANKA GOVERNMENT AND REBEL TAMIL TIGERS AGREE TO DISAGREE OVER SECURITY DISPUTE BUT HOPE TO SPEED UP WORK TO END 20 YEARS OF WAR
Record ID:
649314
THAILAND: SRI LANKA GOVERNMENT AND REBEL TAMIL TIGERS AGREE TO DISAGREE OVER SECURITY DISPUTE BUT HOPE TO SPEED UP WORK TO END 20 YEARS OF WAR
- Title: THAILAND: SRI LANKA GOVERNMENT AND REBEL TAMIL TIGERS AGREE TO DISAGREE OVER SECURITY DISPUTE BUT HOPE TO SPEED UP WORK TO END 20 YEARS OF WAR
- Date: 9th January 2003
- Summary: (W4) NAKORN PATHOM, THAILAND (JANUARY 09, 2003) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. LV SECURITY GUARDING MEETING VENUE AND DELEGATION LEAVING 0.04 2. VARIOUS. DELEGATION ENTERING NEWS CONFERENCE 0.21 3. WIDE OF OFFICIALS SITTING DOWN AT NEWS CONFERENCE 0.29 4. SCU CAMERAMAN FILMING 0.34 5. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) DEPUTY FOREIGN MINISTER OF NORWAY, VIDAR HELGESEN, SAYING: "I think it's fair to say that, yes, it hasn't been a historic meeting in parallel with the Oslo meeting last month. But history is in the making, and that requires hard work, and the parties have really displayed a lot of hard work in a very constructive manner at this meeting." 0.54 6. WIDE OF JOURNALISTS/ CAMERAS 0.59 7. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) CHIEF TAMIL TIGER NEGOTIATOR, ANTON BALASINGHAM, SAYING: "Any question of disarming does not arise. It is non-negotiable. We have already made a point that the disarming of our cadres, or de-commissioning of our weapons at this stage, when a permanent solution is not reached, is suicide on our part because the military power is the power of our people and it is the bargaining power of the Tamils. It is the instrument of security of our people." 1.37 8. WIDE OF DELEGATION TABLE 1.40 9. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) BALASINGHAM SAYING: "The question of disarming doesn't arise, but it doesn't mean that we will have this army and there will be a recourse to violence. I don't think so. There is no need to recourse to violence. There is a permanent ceasefire and the international monitoring committee is supervising the ceasefire." 2.04 10. SLV REPORTERS 2.08 11. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) HEAD OF THE SRI LANKAN GOVERNMENT NEGOTIATING TEAM, G.L. PEIRIS, SAYING: "You have to deal with issues on the ground at the same time as you have to make progress on the politics. And the core matters that were discussed on this occasion included human rights. That is very much an ongoing process which we will be taking up on the next occasion as well." 2.29 12. SMV BALASINGHAM AND HELGESEN TOGETHER, PREPARING TO LEAVE PRESS CONFERENCE 2.33 13. VARIOUS OF DELEGATION GETTING UP TO LEAVE PRESS CONFERENCE 2.41 14. SLV BALASINGHAM SHAKING HANDS WITH PEOPLE , LEAVING ROOM 2.52 15. VARIOUS, PEIRIS LEAVING (2 SHOTS) 3.05 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 24th January 2003 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: NAKORN PATHOM, THAILAND
- Country: Thailand
- Reuters ID: LVA9PO83W20N0L5EF91SQZ0EVI86
- Story Text: Sri Lanka's government and Tamil Tiger rebels have
agreed to disagree on a security dispute, but announced plans
to speed up humanitarian work in a bid to end two decades of
ethnic war.
The four days of talks at a resort on the edge of
Bangkok did not produce any breakthroughs as the earlier three
rounds did, but Norwegian mediators said on Thursday (January
9) that the session had been important because the two sides
were able to progress, despite the dispute.
"I think it's fair to say that, yes, it hasn't been a
historic meeting in parallel with the Oslo meeting last month.
But history is in the making, and that requires hard work, and
the parties have really displayed a lot of hard work in a very
constructive manner at this meeting," said Vidar Helgesen, the
deputy foreign minister of Norway, which helped bring the
government and the rebels to the negotiating table.
He said the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) had agreed there was a "need to
ensure the implementation of urgent humanitarian priorities".
The Tigers have been fighting since 1983 for a separate
state in the north and east of Sri Lanka for minority Tamils,
who they say are discriminated against by the island's
majority Sinhalese.
But, in earlier talks, the rebels dropped the demand for a
separate state and agreed with the government to discuss
setting up a federal system that would give them regional
autonomy.
Helgesen said the two sides agreed to an "Action Plan for
an Accelerated Resettlement Programme for the Jaffna District"
that would be done in two parts.
The first, for which recommendations are to be in place by
mid-February, will focus on resettling people outside
sprawling military security zones on the northern Jaffna
peninsula.
The second phase, for which no time frame was given, will
focus on resettlement inside the security zones.
The contentious security issue centred on demands by the
Sri Lankan army that the Tiger rebels begin disarming in
return for allowing displaced Tamils to return to their homes
inside the zones.
The Tigers said disarming now was not possible, and pulled
out of a committee set up to look at de-escalation in protest.
"Disarming of our cadres or de-commissioning of our
weapons at this stage when a permanent solution is not reached
is suicide on our part," said chief Tiger negotiator Anton
Balasingham.
However, he added: "We have no need to recourse to
violence, there is a permanent ceasefire...and the peace
process is going on smoothly."
In addition to killing 64,000 people, the war has left
more than one million people internally displaced, and there
had been worries that the political progress in the talks was
moving ahead of work on the ground.
"You have to deal with issues on the ground at the same
time as you have to make progress on the politics," said G.L.
Peiris, the head of the government negotiating team.
He said the World Bank had been picked to oversee a fund
raised from international donors that will pay for the
rehabilitation work.
Ian Martin, a former head of rights watchdog Amnesty
International, has been asked to advise both parties in
drawing up a human rights plan, Peiris said.
He added that a sub-committee would be set up to look at
women's issues.
Because of the fighting, there are a huge number of
single-parent families in northern Sri Lanka.
Four more rounds of talks are planned by the end of June,
Helgesen said.
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