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| Sunday, 8 September 2002 |
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Reconstruction vital for peace bid-Oslo OTTAWA, Sept 7 (Reuters) - Peace talks between the Sri Lankan government and Tamil Tiger rebels will stand a better chance of success if international donors act now to help rebuild the war-damaged island, a senior Norwegian official said on Friday. Norway is brokering the talks, the first round of which will start in Thailand on Sept. 16, in a bid to end a conflict in which around 64,000 people have died. "We believe it would underpin and strengthen the peace process if tangible benefits are brought to people both in the north and the south of Sri Lanka. This will be an important part of the first round of talks," Norwegian Deputy Foreign Minister Vidar Helgesen said during a visit to Ottawa. "The destruction is enormous, particularly in the north... So our appeal would be to the international community, including Canada, of course, to not await a final outcome of the talks to actually start increasing humanitarian and reconstruction assistance," he told reporters. Sri Lanka says it needs $500 million over the next five years to rebuild the war-shattered north. International donors have said they are willing to help rebuild the war zone but first want to see the peace process firmly entrenched. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam have waged war since 1983 in pursuit of a separate state in the north and east of Sri Lanka for Tamils, who they say are discriminated against by the Sinhala majority. The government and rebels signed a cease-fire in February, which has largely held. Helgesen said the two sides would take several months to reach any interim deal and said a final peace agreement would take years. "Because it's going to be long and difficult, quick support from the international community is very important," he said. "One reason why we emphasize this a lot (is because) building peace cannot only be done between leaders. It will have to be done at field level as well...their leadership will also be facilitated and made much easier if people can see that they are leading them to prosperity and a better future." Helgesen played down protests by the opposition Marxists against the peace process, saying he was convinced that the large majority of Sri Lankans supported the talks. "I am at least cautiously optimistic. I am very encouraged by the determination of the parties to move the process forward," he said, while stressing that there were many obstacles to be overcome. "I'm clearly in a patient mood because we know this is going to take a long time and we are stressing this, not least to the Sri Lankans...expectations of a speedy solution should be measured. This is going to be difficult." Helgesen later met with Canada's Secretary of State for Asia-Pacific David Kilgour, who says Sri Lanka might benefit from the Canadian system of federal government, which gives broad rights to the country's different provinces. "We acknowledged that such an issue would not be the main theme today because it would be one for down the line," Helgesen told Reuters after the talks. Canada has a 300,000-strong Sri Lankan community, the majority of them Tamils. |
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