Lanka team in Thailand for peace talks

A Sri Lankan delegation yesterday arrived in Thailand for talks with Tamil guerrillas raising fresh hopes for a settlement to the prolonged ethnic conflict.

The delegation, led by Constitutional Affairs Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris, arrived at the Thai coastal town of Sattahip where the talks are scheduled to commence tomorrow.

Some 35 local journalists travelled on the same flight and took accommodation close to the venue of the talks, but will have no direct access to the location where the talks are taking place. The delegation assisting the Sri Lankan four-member team were also accommodated outside the main venue.

The talks, the fourth in the two-decade-old conflict, are seen as a major step towards working out a negotiated settlement to the ethnic conflict.

"It's a historic and important step forward. The focus will be to determine modalities, agenda and the frequency of future meetings," Minister Milinda Moragoda, a member of the delegation, told journalists before leaving.

As for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a source who spoke over telephone from Kilinochchi said the crucial issues like resettlement of the thousands displaced in the North and East as well as rehabilitation programmes, would come as matters of high priority.

The ceremonial session will open in the morning at the Ambassador Hotel Jomtieu. It is to be televised live by the state-run television back in Sri Lanka.

The peace process has been encouraged by political parties and religious groups, but the main opposition People's Alliance led by President Chandrika Kumara-tunga seems to be divided about the process.

The PA's chief spokesman, Dr Sarath Amunugama, was quoted in local newspapers as saying that they were wishing the government well for the process and recalled that it was the PA that initiated the process.

But former minister Mangala Samaraweera on Friday told a news conference that they would not consider the talks as official.

A last minute attempt by Moragoda to meet President Chandrika Kumaratunga before he left for the talks could not take place as the President was in the southern part of the country holidaying with her son Vimukthi. She was also taking part in meetings to address her party members.

In a significant development yesterday, four Tamil parties who have been outside the pro-guerrilla Tamil political party group declared that they have decided to unanimously support the peace initiative.

The four Tamil parties moved a resolution assuring that they would not take any step that would disturb the peace process.