Sunday Observations The Political Column

Won't be dragooned into talks despite Solhiem etc.,

The LTTE dropped its peace clunker this week. By now we all know about that --- and it would have been expected, considering the LTTE's performance on the battlefront.

But what was not expected was the behaviours of the co-chairs and of Erik Solhiem, the Norwegian special envoy. It appeared that Sri Lanka was being dragooned into peace talks in Oslo in October.

How was this? Solhiem announced without a by your leave of anyone in the Sri Lankan government, that the Sri Lankan delegation would be meeting the LTTE delegation in Oslo for peace talks.

By the latter part of the week, the Sri Lanka peace secretariat had issued a statement saying that it was concerned about the co-chairs statement about talks which was issued without any concurrence of the Sri lankan President or government. A well-worded protest on this issue, was included in the statement.
Is the Sri Lankan government being dragooned onto the negotiating table? That's unlikely. The President told the JVP and SLFP delegations earlier in the week that it was more than obvious that the Tigers are willing to talk due to their abysmal showing in the battlefront.

Government spokesman Keheliya Rambukwela was the most vocal on this count. He was vehement in his assertion that there would be no peace talks sans a guarantee from the LTTE on vital issues -- such as eschewing violence, and possibly the laying down of arms.

There was some misunderstandings in the UNP, with Milinda Moragoda pursuing an inpendent meeting with the President. This got the goat of the party leadership, which issued a statement that Moragoda was meeting the President on an agenda which was outside the UNP SLFP talks.

This angered Moragoda, and there was some sparring between party leader Wickremesinghe and Moragoda who threatened to go to press with a statement of his own saying that his talks had the prior sanction of the UNP leader.

We carry elsewhere on page 3, the latest on the SLFP UNP talks, which took off on a postitive note with the President saying that the talks were a sincere move to forge a national agenda -- and not one that is seeking to establish narrow political gains through ulterior moves.
Karu Jayasuirya the UNP deputy leader said that he feels the same way about the matter.

Somawamsa Amarasighe's talks with the President received wide mileage in the national dailies in the form of photo opportunities. Amarasinghe had returned from South Korea, where he participated in a parley of international parliamentary delegations. He returned to the island after a fire and brimstone speech at this parley in Seoul, at which he castigated Norway for its partisan and interfering role in Sri Lanka's conflict.

At week's end it was known that two seven member teams will take part in the UNP - SLFP talks. The SLFP team will comprise Karu Jayasuriya, John Amaratunge, G. L. Peiris, Rukman Senanayake, Milinda Moragoda , Ravi Karunanayake and Malik Samarawickreme.