TNA MPs to meet LTTE political leadership Saturday

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 June 2004, 00:40 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians are scheduled to the meet Mr.S.P.Thamilchelvan, political head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Saturday to discuss the current political situation in the south and the latest developments in reviving the peace talks through Norwegian facilitation, sources said.

The meeting between the TNA and LTTE is to take place Saturday morning around 10.30 a.m. in the LTTE Peace Secretariat in Kilinochchi, Vanni sources said.

All the twenty-two TNA parliamentarians, including two national list members, are expected to attend the conference, sources said.

Norwegian facilitators began discussions with both parties of the conflict to resume the stalled peace talks at the invitation of the President, Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunge, following the defeat of her candidate for the post of Speaker in the new parliament. However talks ended in a deadlock when the President failed to obtain the support of her major allied party, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) in her minority United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government to commence talks on the basis of Interim Self Governing Authority (ISGA) proposals submitted by the LTTE.

The JVP has demanded that Norwegian facilitators should not sit with the representatives of the parties to the conflict during talks and also that talks should not be held on the basis of the ISGA, sources said

The LTTE insisted that first priority should be given to the institutionalization of the ISGA in the northeast and talks on core issues of the national question to find a lasting political solution could be held later against the President’s stand that both should take place parallel, sources said.

In this background the Norwegian facilitators abandoned their attempt to re-open the peace talks for the time being till the elections to the six provincial councils in the south are over. Provincial council polls are fixed for July 10th, sources said.