Sri Lankan Muslim, Tamil Rebel Leaders to Meet on Ethnic Problem

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, September 25, 2002

Sri Lankan Muslim, Tamil Rebel Leaders to Meet on Ethnic Problem

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Sri Lanka's main Muslim party leader Rauf Hakeem said Tuesday that he will meet with separatist Tamil Tiger rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran on issues concerning Muslims residing in the Tamil-dominated areas in the north and east of the country.

Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) leader Rauf Hakeem said he was "cautiously optimistic" that his forthcoming meeting with leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Prabhakaran would win the Muslims more power.

This will be the second meeting between Hakeem and Prabhakaran in six months. No date has been finalized so far. In April Hakeem clinched a pact with Prabhakaran in rebel-controlled north.

"We hope we can minimize our differences bilaterally and make our main deliberations less complicated," Hakeem told reporters here.

Muslims in Sri Lanka are the second largest minority after the Tamils which account for about 8 percent of the island's 18.6 million population.

Although the SLMC entered into a pact with the LTTE, the party complained that Muslims suffered harassment by the rebels who have breached the pact.

The issue of Muslims in the country is considered an important part of the Norwegian-backed peace process which has made some progress at the conclusion of the historic first round of talks between the government and the rebels in Thailand last week. Hakeem, who was the Minister of Port, was one of the government delegation members.

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