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Dispute Over Committee remains: Differences over SDN will not affect talks 

From Arjuna Ranawana in Thailand

Differences over the Sub-committee on De-escalation and Normalisation (SDN) remained between the Government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) at the end of the third day of the fourth round of peace talks being held in Nakhon Pathom in Thailand.

The government says the committee is functioning while the LTTE says it "is not operative".

The LTTE's Chief Negotiator Anton Balasingham said on Wednesday night that their representatives would not attend a scheduled SDN meeting on January 14.

His counterpart in the government Minister Professor G.L. Peiris said yesterday that the SDN "is not dismantled or suspended".

"It is natural for differences to come up during such a process. If there weren't any such differences there would be no need for negotiations," he said.

His Ministerial colleague and fellow negotiator Milinda Moragoda pointed out that the SDN had done useful and important work both in the North and East and that the government was of the view it should remain.

The committee comprising military men on both sides deals with security issues in the main. "We can understand the feelings of the military as they have been fighting for a long period," Prof. Peiris observed.

The difference of opinion however did not prevent the negotiators from fixing dates for future talks in April and June. The latter rounds are to take place in Japan.

"There is no crisis, the talks will go on," Balasingham said.

They also worked out a timetable for the resettlement of internally displaced people and refugees in the Jaffna Peninsula, an issue which had cast a cloud of uncertainty over this round of talks.

The LTTE had earlier strongly objected to the tone and substance of an internal military memorandum that had linked the resettlement of civilians inside the High Security zones maintained by the Sri Lankan Military Forces in Jaffna to the decommissioning of heavy weapons held by the Tigers.

The memo was transmitted to the LTTE and also appeared in the press.

On Wednesday the LTTE and the government resolved the issue by agreeing to view it as a purely humanitarian issue and begin resettlement outside the HSZs. The government also accepted that it couldn't be linked to the decommissioning of weapons.

The talks end today and it is expected that the two sides will make some key announcements. The first will be the timetable for resettlement, an emotive issue in Jaffna, which has placed the LTTE under some pressure from the civilian population.

The other will be that the two parties will ask the World Bank to handle the funds pledged by the donor countries for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the North and East.

Both matters are seen as important to deliver the fruits of the peace to the ordinary people of the war-ravaged areas.

Balasingham said on Tuesday night that although "politically we have achieved substantial results even discussing a federal solution, on the ground the existential problems of the masses have not been solved".

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