Sri Lankan Peace Talks Enter Final Day with Moderate Gains

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, September 18, 2002

Sri Lankan Peace Talks Enter Final Day with Moderate Gains

Negotiators of Sri Lanka's historic peace talks on Wednesday started the final day of their first round discussions in an eastern Thai naval base, after moderate gains were made in previous meetings.

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Negotiators of Sri Lanka's historic peace talks on Wednesday started the final day of their first round discussions in an eastern Thai naval base, after moderate gains were made in previous meetings.

In the talks starting Monday in Sattahip base, 250 km southeastof Bangkok, Sri Lanka's government and the country's rebellious Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) agreed to cooperate on de-mining and humanitarian efforts in the country's war-torn areas while setting aside the thorny question of the LTTE's status, according to local TV news reports.

The two sides also pledged to work together on providing rehabilitation for war victims and facilitating the return of those who had been displaced in the country's 19-year-old civil war.

However, details of these plans are yet to be worked out.

On Wednesday, negotiators are expected to set a framework of future rounds of talks before issuing a joint statement of their negotiation results.

The ongoing talks, the first ones in 7 years, hold high hopes of starting a process to end one of the world's contemporary longest and bloodiest civil wars, which has claimed at least 64,500 lives and displaced another 1.8 million since 1983 in the tinySouth Asian island state of 19 million.

The event followed a Norway-brokered cease-fire deal between the two sides in February and is hosted by the Thai government.

G.L. Peiris, top negotiator of the Sri Lankan government, said negotiators agreed to meet again in the same place in Thailand later next month.

Although negotiators tend to leave the thorny issue of LTTE's future political role to next rounds of talks, any major breakthrough of the peace process hinges on it.

The LTTE has been fighting with the Sinhalese-dominated Sri Lankan government in the country's north and east for an independent Tamil state since 1983. It still claims the rights to rule these areas.

Meanwhile, the government faces a dilemma on its attempt to incorporate the once-violent LTTE rebels into the country's mainstream politics because that will need constitutional changes and will surely meet strong opposition from the majority non-Tamils in the island.

Sinhalese accounts for 74 percent of the Sri Lankan population while Tamils stand for 18 percent. The LTTE said it fought the warfor protecting Tamil interests against the discrimination from Sinhalese who dominated the government.

Meanwhile, Muslims account for only 7 percent of all Sri Lankans, they are viewed as a key balancing force between Sinhalese and Tamils which could make or break the peace process.

During the talks, the LTTE side invited Rauf Hakeem, the Muslimrepresentative in the government's team, for a separate meeting tohammer out the Tamil-Muslim conflict in Sri Lanka's east.

Unlike the north, Muslims make up of a considerable presence inthe east, which the LTTE also claims to be part of its land. An April clash there between Tamils and local Muslims almost broke down the newly-signed truce deal between the LTTE and the government.

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