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Priority for North-East reconstruction projects

From Arjuna Ranawana in Thailand

The government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) last night agreed to ask a multi-lateral agency to administer the North-East Development Fund into which donor money for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the war ravaged areas has been pledged.

On the first day of the fourth round of talks in Nakhon Pathom near Bangkok in Thailand, the two sides also agreed to detail the sub-committee on rehabilitation and reconstruction to quickly prioritise the projects and begin work on several selected schemes before the major donor conference is held in Tokyo in March.

The fund will administer part of the US dollars 70 million which was pledged by the international community at the Sri Lanka Support meeting held in Oslo in November, Chief government negotiator Minister Professor G.L. Peiris told the Daily News.

Some of the donor funds will go directly into projects chosen by the donors.

The agreement on the key economic issue rested fears that the talks would be scuttled by the public differences expressed over the High Security Zones issue in the Jaffna Peninsula.

The LTTE negotiators also said that yesterday's sessions had gone "smoothly and we are very satisfied with the results."

Today the negotiators will take up matters relating to the resettlement of internally displaced persons.

The thorny issue of the HSZs will come up when this is discussed.

"This session will be more difficult, that can be expected," observed Norwegian peace envoy Erik Solheim, told the Daily News.

"There is no way in the world anyone can expect a breakthrough at every session," he said describing the nature of the session at which for the first time detailed issues would be grappled with by the teams.

Well-placed LTTE sources said: "The issue of the HSZs which would normally would have been discussed at the sub-committee level has now been elevated to the high table for the main discussions."

The reason for that, the LTTE said were reports that the HSZs would not be dismantled until the LTTE's arms were decommissioned. On January 2 the LTTE reacted by saying the decommissioning of arms was "non-negotiable."

The HSZs issue was the toughest poser for the negotiators since the talks began because of the public hype and hot rhetoric generated by it over the past week.

Professor Peiris said that the issue would be reconciled. "From time to time we will encounter such issues, but the objective of negotiations is to reconcile them."

The government he said views the problem as one of resettlement of the internally displaced.

He said that there are several conditions that have to be met before people can be permitted back to live in these areas.

"Firstly they have to be de-mined and made safe for people to live in. Secondly we have to see whether the original inhabitants are those actually coming back to live in these areas and finally we have to reconstruct basic infrastructure so that they can live there."

Professor Pieris led the government team comprising with Ministers Milinda Moragoda and Rauf Hakeem and the Director General of the Peace Secretariat Bernard Goonetilaka. They were assisted by Defense Secretary Austin Fernando, Major-General Shantha Kottegoda and several other officials.

The LTTE team is led by Anton Balasingham with political Paramu Tamilselvan, military representative M. Karuna and Adele Balasingham. The head of the LTTE Peace Secretariat S Pulitheevan, was among the delegates for the first time.

There is a Prabhakaran at the talks in Thailand this time.

No it is not Velupillai Prabhakaran, leader of the LTTE, but S Prabhakaran who now goes by the name of Pulitheevan, his "Tiger" name.

The political leader from the LTTE's northern command who has played a key role in setting up the Tigers' political organization in the peninsula is not a delegate but an adviser to the team.

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