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Tamil Tigers reject peace talks
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka -- Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels have rejected a government proposal to restart stalled peace talks. The Tigers said on Friday the plan was not suited to carrying out humanitarian work in Tamil areas hit by two decades of war, Reuters news agency reported. The Tigers suspended peace talks last month and pulled out of a donor conference in Tokyo to protest at what they said was a lack of progress on government promises to rebuild the Tamil areas. Sri Lanka's prime minister had earlier this week urged the Tamil Tiger rebels to show "more understanding" towards efforts to end 20 years of civil war in the country. Ranil Wickremesinghe's plea came as the Liberation Tamil Tigers of Elam (LTTE) rebels said many of the decisions taken during six rounds of discussions have not been implemented. The rebels have also threatened to stay away from an all-important international aid-pledging conference scheduled for next month in Tokyo unless their demand for a rebel-controlled interim administration in northern and eastern provinces of the country was met. Wickremesinghe said he hoped the rebels would attend the Tokyo conference. "Reality has to play its role. Frankly, the LTTE have to be more understanding of the issues involved. Demanding is one thing, delivering is never straightforward," the prime minister said at a gathering of Asia's Liberals and Democrats in Colombo. Granting an interim administration requires a change in the constitution for which the government needs a two-thirds majority in parliament -- a majority it does not enjoy.
The main opposition alliance and smaller hard-line Sinhalese nationalist groups have already accused the government of giving away too many concessions to the rebels. On Wednesday, the government said it had proposed a "development-oriented structure," which it hoped would satisfy the rebels for the time being. It would allow the rebels to control funds pledged by international donors at the Tokyo conference for the war-torn north and the east of the country. "Tokyo is important not least because it signs up the international community to our future," he said. Officials from Norway, who are brokering the peace talks, are shuttling between the two sides to work out a compromise that would bring the rebels back to the negotiating table and the Tokyo conference. The breakdown of the talks has triggered concerns the cease-fire of the past seventeen months may soon be over, with the country once again plunged into a war that has cost the lives of more than 65,000 people. But the rebels say they will not go back to war as they believe there is no military solution to the ethnic problem in Sri Lanka. The rebels have been fighting for a Tamil homeland in the Sinhalese-dominated Sri Lanka. CNN Correspondent Kasra Naji contributed to this report
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