AFP. 4 January 2002. Sri Lanka Marxists slam Norwegian peace role.
COLOMBO -- Sri Lanka's Marxists Friday criticised a Norwegian peace effort which could bring the government and the Tamil Tiger rebels to the negotiating table. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) guerrillas and the Sri Lankan government, led by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, have both formally asked the Norwegians to facilitate a peace process to end three decades of ethnic bloodshed which have cost more than 60,000 lives. But Anura Kumara Dissanayake, of the Marxist JVP, or People's Liberation Front, told reporters that the Norwegians would be "an unfair facilitator." "We have the example of Israeli-Palestine conflict. The Norwegian brokering there had not led to any peace", Dissanayake said. Norway has played a crucial role in the Middle East peace process for some years. But the independent newspaper, The Island, was also disparaging of any role by Oslo. "The Norwegian government has shown itself to be very partial towards the LTTE and this was the reason why their mediation efforts made earlier failed," it said it an editorial Friday. Earlier attempts by Norway to broker peace ran ran into trouble in June when the then government sidelined Oslo's peace envoy. The peace process has been on hold since then. Last month the rebels, who are fighting for an independent homeland for Sri Lanka's Tamil minority in the north and east of the country, announced a month-long unilateral truce starting from Christmas Eve. Shortly afterwards, the new government, which was elected in December on a pledge to end the armed conflict by opening talks, said it would reciprocate the truce. On Wednesday the government, as a gesture of goodwill eased an economic embargo of areas held by the Tamil rebels in the island's north. Wimal Weerawansa, spokesman for the JVP, which won 16 seats at a general election in December, said the rebels traditionally used truce periods to re-arm and re-group. Therefore the government must impose conditions such as laying down arms before starting talks, he said. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews
