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Norway envoy meets Sri Lanka's Tigers to save truce
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-01-25 15:19
Norwegian peace envoy Erik Solheim met Tamil Tiger rebels on Wednesday for
crunch talks aimed at averting a new civil war, saying he did not know who was
behind overnight explosions in the capital.
No-one was injured in the five bombs or grenades in Colombo residential
districts, but the sound of blasts and of army vehicles racing through streets
reminded some of two decades of conflict during which Tiger suicide bombers
attacked the city.
"I have absolutely no way of knowing whether those bomb explosions were
politically related or not," Solheim said after arriving in the de facto rebel
capital on a Sri Lankan Air Force helicopter. He said he had nothing else to say
before talks to meet the Tamil Tigers' leader.
Police said they did not know who carried out the blasts, but some diplomats
said they suspected nationalists from the Sinhalese majority trying to disrupt
Solheim's meeting with rebel chief Velupillai Prabhakaran, a meeting some say
could be followed by a new peace effort. But if it fails, the country could
descend into war once again.
The army accused the Tigers of throwing a grenade into a police bunker just
south of rebel lines early on Wednesday, wounding one policeman, the latest in a
string of attacks that have stretched the 2002 truce Solheim brokered to its
limit.
The army also said two suspected Tiger members had been shot dead by
unidentified gunmen in the north.
Prabhakaran, seen as one of the world's most ruthless guerrilla leaders who
is unwilling to compromise in his demands for a Tamil homeland, rarely meets
anyone outside his senior aides, let alone foreigners.
But Solheim is believed to have struck up a rapport with him in several
meetings since Norway was asked to spearhead the peace effort.
"There's a lot riding on this visit," said a senior aid worker, rising
violence already affecting his agency's relief work aimed at rebuilding after
the 2004 tsunami. "Maybe too much."
Analysts say a November election boycott by the Tigers destroyed the chances
of the presidential candidate seen most likely to secure peace -- a sign, some
fear, they are tired of peace. The stock exchange has lost a quarter of its
value since the poll.
PRAYING FOR A VENUE
The Tigers deny involvement in recent attacks, though few believe them, but
say since the first ambushes in December, army abuses have risen and that the
military is killing Tamil civilians -- and this must stop if the island is to
avoid war.
Solheim's initial challenge is to bring the two sides to a venue for direct
talks. Even this might not be easy.
Official sources said the government was willing to go anywhere but Norway,
while the rebels have said they will not go anywhere else. Some of President
Mahinda Rajapakse's allies say Norway has been too soft on the Tigers and think
the Nordic country is not the appropriate venue.
Many in Kilinochchi, the small market town that is the headquarters of the de
facto Tiger state covering a seventh of the island, say they are praying he
succeeds.
The conflict killed over 64,000 people until the truce, leaving Kilinochchi
and other towns all but destroyed, farmland covered in landmines and
malnutrition rates in the minority Tamil north and east twice as high as in the
rest of Sri Lanka.
"Man is looking for war but God will look after us," said Theivannai
Mahendran, a mother of seven children who was shopping in the town's main
market. She said she and 100 other women fasted for peace for two days earlier
in the week.
"We should get an answer to our prayers," she said.
But young men in the town say they are willing to fight.
"We are full of expectations about the talks but it looks like war will
resume," said Arulchelvan Veerakathyar, a 20-year-old manning a bicycle stand in
the town. He said he had been trained by the Tigers and was ready for war. "If
there's another battle, everyone will join."
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