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)
