S.Lankan Opposition: Govt, Rebels End Conflict by Next Year

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, September 27, 2002

S.Lankan Opposition: Govt, Rebels End Conflict by Next Year

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Sri Lanka's main opposition People's Alliance (PA) urges the government and separatist Tamil Tiger rebels to work out a solution to the country's long running ethnic conflict by next year, Lakshman Kadirgamar, PA front liner said Friday.

The government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) held their first round of Norwegian-brokered direct talks last week in Thailand.

The talks were the first direct negotiations since 1995. The two parties have set dates for three more rounds of talks between October this year and January next year aimed at ending the 19-year conflict that has claimed over 64,000 lives over the last two decades.

Kadirgamar, a Tamil and former foreign minister who led an international campaign against the LTTE rebels said "We (PA) do not believe that it takes years for the two sides to reach a settlement."

The issues of the conflict are too well known, therefore "the longer it takes, the position on the ground will harden," Kadirgamar told reporters.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe who undertook the peace initiative soon after his election victory in December last year has said that despite the current peace process, it will be years before a final settlement could be reached.

The LTTE rebels who said at Thai talks they were dropping their demand for a separate state in preference for regional autonomy have also acknowledged that the process would need years to lead to a permanent settlement.

Kadirgamar, however, said the Tamil rebels' remarks were welcome but there was "ambivalence and ambiguity" of their position vis-a-vis a separate state.

He also said that the PA led by President Chandrika Kumaratunga has initiated the peace process in the country and is committed toa peaceful solution to the long-running ethnic conflict.

He noted that the PA supports the current peace process but believes it will not be at any cost.

The LTTE rebels have been fighting the government troops in the country's north and east since 1983 in their bid to carve out a separate state for the minority Tamil community.

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