Chandrika seeks Tamil help

Sri Lanka President Chandrika Kumaratunga urged minority Tamils in the embattled Jaffna peninsula to help bring Tiger rebels to the negotiating table as Norway battled to save its peace bid.

Kumaratunga in a video conference with residents in Jaffna, 400 km north of here, said the Norwegian-backed peace process had been held up due to new demands put forward by the guerrillas.

The separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have in turn slammed the government and accused it of jeopardising the peace efforts of the Norwegians. "We believe the people of Jaffna would be able to persuade the LTTE to abandon their violent ways and agree to a solution that upholds democracy," the president was quoted as saying in the state-run Daily News yesterday.

In her address Tuesday, Kumaratunga said her government was committed to a peaceful solution to the conflict which has claimed more than 60,000 lives in the past two decades. "But talks have been delayed during the past five months due to the LTTE's insistence on new demands and conditions," Kumaratunga said.

Kumaratunga blamed the opposition United National Party for blocking constitutional changes designed to give minority Tamils more regional autonomy, something the president has called the only viable alternative to a separate Tamil state.

"A political settlement to the ethnic conflict was the aim of the proposed new constitution which we could not pass in parliament as the UNOP refused to cooperate," she said. Norway's special envoy, Erik Solheim, arrived here Monday for talks with Kumaratunga and other leaders in a bid to revive the peace process buffeted by heavy fighting in Jaffna last week.

More than 410 combatants on both sides were killed in four days of fierce fighting that ended Saturday in the southern sector of the Jaffna peninsula. While Kumaratunga addressed residents of Jaffna, the Tamil Tigers Tuesday lambasted her government for triggering a "full-blown war."

The LTTE accused Colombo of shattering Oslo's peace efforts by launching a major offensive at the end of the rebels' four-month-long unilateral truce on April 24. "By unleashing a major military offensive against the LTTE's positions in Jaffna, the Kumaratunga government has seriously jeopardised the Norwegian peace initiative," the LTTE said in a statement.

Solheim held talks with Kumaratunga Monday and met with opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe late Tuesday. The Norwegian embassy said Solheim met with Colombo-based diplomats before leaving yesterday. Earlier, there were reports that he had delayed his departure to hold more talks with Kumaratunga.