Sri Lanka rebels refuse to meet government at Oslo

By James Kilner and Peter Apps

OSLO/COLOMBO (Reuters) – Sri Lanka’s government said Tamil
Tiger rebels had refused to meet them at talks in Oslo on
Thursday, a blow to hopes of revitalizing a peace process many
fear is about to degenerate into renewed civil war.

Mediator Norway said there was no common ground between the
island’s government and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
(LTTE), but the rebels stressed they were still continuing
discussions separately with Norway.

The development came as new violence on the island left at
least three dead. More than 400 people have been killed since
early April in a growing low intensity conflict in Sri Lanka’s
north and east, dominated by its minority Tamil people.

The Oslo meeting, the first between the two sides since
February, was to only center on the role of the Nordic mission
monitoring what is left of a 2002 cease-fire. But some had
still hoped it could yield more and possibly even pave the way
for wider peace talks, which the Tigers have pulled out of
indefinitely.

The Norwegian government said it was still talking to both
sides separately.

“The Sri Lankan delegation was informed by the Norwegians
that the LTTE had declined to meet,” a government statement
said. “The Norwegian government representatives themselves
expressed complete surprise by the stance taken by the LTTE
despite all the background preparations made by the Norwegian
facilitators.”

Pro-rebel website Tamilnet quoted the Tigers as saying
discussions would continue through mediators, although
political leader S.P. Thamilselvan did not detail why they had
refused to meet the government delegation.

The government said it had been told that the presence of
nationals from European Union nations Sweden, Finland and
Denmark in the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) was
objectionable after the EU banned the Tigers as terrorists last
month.

“Discussions on SLMM, at this crucial juncture, would be
productive when the delegations raise the issues separately
with the Norwegian facilitators, giving room for the
facilitators to work out an agenda and let them approach the
issue progressively,” Thamilselvan told www.tamilnet.com.

NO COMMON GROUND

Earlier in the day, Tamil daily newspaper Uthayan reported
that Thamilselvan was refusing to meet the government team as
it was only led by a civil servant and not a minister.

Norway said there would be a press conference at 9 p.m.
(1900 GMT). Both sides were continuing to meet with Norwegian
diplomats and Development Minister Erik Solheim, who brokered
the original truce, was headed to the venue, a spokesman said.

“We will explain today how the two sides were unable to
find common ground to sit down together, although we have been
meeting with each side,” Norwegian government spokesman Espen
Gullikstad told Reuters.

If violence continues, many fear that in time it could
spiral back to the full-scale civil war that killed more than
64,000 people and devastated the island’s north and east, where
the Tigers want a separate Tamil homeland.

Withdrawing EU staff from the mission would involve
removing current SLMM head Swedish Major General Ulf Henricsson
and leave the mission with a handful of Norwegian and Icelandic
staff — making it increasingly difficult to monitor the
battered truce.

SLMM has been caught in several firefights and angered both
sides by accusing them of repeated cease-fire breaches. They
blamed members of the armed forces for involvement in
extra-judicial killings and ruled the rebels had no right to
send their Sea Tiger warships to sea.

The army said one officer was killed and a soldier wounded
in a suspected rebel mine attack in the north-western Mannar
district on Thursday. The LTTE said two civilians were killed
and another four wounded in attacks on rebel territory.

Each side routinely denies carrying out attacks on the
other.