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by Ananth Palakidnar

The talks between Government and LTTE officials held in Kilinochchi last week in the run-up to the Thailand peace negotiations have been satisfactory, according to both sides. Head of the Government Peace Secretariat Bernard Gunatilleke said that Friday's talks in Kilinochchi had been satisfactory but would not give more details. Meanwhile the leader of the political wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) S. P. Thamilchelvan has expressed confidence and satisfaction over the talks according to reports from the North.

The talks between Gunatilleke and Thamilchelvan took place a few hours before the announcement made from Oslo , Norway on the dates fixed for the first round of talks between the Sri Lankan Government and the LTTE in Thailand between 16 and 18th September. While the likely LTTE delegation for Thai talks has been mentioned in several reports, the Governmental representation is yet to be announced.

Thamilchelvan describing on the talks he had with the chief of the Peace Secretariat to the Eelanatham daily in Kilinochchi said that nothing was negative and the talks took place with greater understanding.

The contends of the talks were not released in details, but the sources said that they were centred around mainly on the future plans for the talks and on the rehabilitation and re-construction activities in the North and the East. Meanwhile, a press release from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has confirmed the dates for talks in Thailand last Friday.

The statement released by the Norwegian Foreign Office is as follows:

At the request of the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) the Government of Norway is pleased to announce the dates for the first round of peace talks in Thailand in consultation with the Thai and the Norwegian authorities, the parties have decided to hold the first round of talks between September 16 to 18, 2002. The venue for the talks will be announced later.

The Tamil political sources said that the LTTE theoretician Anton Balasingham, his wife Adele and another LTTE stalwart V. Rudrakumar from USA were likely to take part in the first round.

The Tamil National Alliance member and All Ceylon Tamil Congress leader A. Vinayagamorthy commenting on the commencement of talks told the 'Sunday Observer' at last the date has been confirmed and we are happy over it."The next thing is that all political parties in the country should make sure that the conducive atmosphere so that talks must not get disturbed.

We must give our fullest co-operation to the Government and the LTTE to boost their efforts towards peace a success," he said.

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