|
COLOMBO, Jan 5 (AFP): Sri Lanka said Thursday it wants a Norwegian peace envoy due later this month to put pressure on Tamil Tiger rebels to resume talks with the government on saving their troubled truce.
Health Minister Nimal Siriplala de Silva said they expect Norway's International Development Minister Erik Solheim, due here on January 23, to pressure the Tamil Tiger rebels to compromise on a venue for the face-to-face talks.
"We will tell him to pressure the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) to come to a reasonable solution," said de Silva, who is also a government spokesman on the peace process.
Norway's attempts to bring the two parties to the table remain deadlocked over a dispute on the venue.
The Sri Lankan government initially insisted that the meeting must be in an area under their control within Sri Lanka but later agreed to move to an Asian venue. The Tigers insisted that talks must be in territory under their control or in Oslo, the capital of the peacebroker.
De Silva said there was no change in Colombo's position and it was hopeful of talks at an Asian venue. Japan, Sri Lanka's main financial backer, has offered to host talks.
Nordic truce monitors warned last week that the country was not too far from returning to war given the escalation of violence in the northeast, where nearly 100 people have been killed in the past month.
Official sources said a team of top officials had been due to travel to the troubled northern peninsula of Jaffna for talks with civil organisations in the area Thursday as a confidence-building measure, but the visit had been put off.
|