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A serene setting for negotiations

The ornately carved Teak Room is a hall the negotiators from the government the LTTE are familiar with. This is where they met in early November and agreed to work out a political settlement to the ethnic conflict. The bonhomie of the early days of the talks was still evident at the beginning yesterday despite the tough rhetoric that had coloured the days before the discussions began.

The LTTE delegation arrived in formal suits while the government delegation struck an informal note, turning up in open-necked shirts, and most of them walked the short distance from their rooms to the hall. The 70-acre Rose Garden resort where the talks are taking place is 32 kilometres West of the teeming, bustling city of Bangkok and is a popular spot for tourists to experience the gentle Thai way of life in five star comfort. Its got lots of greenery, roses line the pathways and the Nakhon Chaisri river flows gently past. A truly serene and pastoral setting.

But inside the hall the negotiations are tougher this time. The expressions of goodwill, the frameworks all set, but now come the details and these will be a tough grind to negotiate. A few paces from the conference hall is the little Sal plant G L Peiris and Anton Balasingham planted the last time around. It is a healthy little, knee-high plant now, and if it is to grow into a robust tree, like the peace process will have to weather many a storm. (AR)

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