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Canadian and Norwegian Foreign Ministers have next week

Intense preparations for next round of peace talks

by Ranil Wijayapala and Rajmi Manatunga

The Government and the LTTE are in intense preparation for the sixth round of peace talks in Hakone Japan which will focus on four major issues with several high profile figures set to arrive in the country next week for discussions with both parties ahead of the talks.

Cabinet Spokesman and Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris told the weekly cabinet press briefing yesterday that Norwegian Foreign Minister Jan Peterson, his Deputy Vidar Helgessen, Canadian Foreign Minister Bill Greham and former Director General of the Amnesty International Ian Martin are due to visit Sri Lanka next week. The talks will be held from March 18 to 21.

Canadian Foreign Minister Bill Greham will have discussion with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on March 12, the Minister said.

The Norwegian Foreign Minister and his Deputy and the former Director General of the Amnesty International will have discussions with the Government and the LTTE in Colombo and Kilinochchi respectively.

Their talks will centre on four issues: the implementation of the ceasefire agreement, the question of child soldiers, progress made in the talks on political issues especially the fiscal aspect of power sharing and the preparations for the major donor conference to be held in June.

The Norwegian Ministers will have discussions with the LTTE regarding the implementation of the ceasefire agreement. "We are happy that the LTTE released the two captives complying with the ruling by the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission", the Minister said.

The Government has made representations on certain issues to the SLMM on the implementation of the ceasefire agreement and they will be taken up at the discussions between the visiting delegation and the LTTE.

"We are happy with the discussions held between the LTTE and the UNICEF. It had a practical approach on the rehabilitation of child soldiers, educating them and the process of handing over them", the Minister said.

The former Director General of the Amnesty International Ian Martin will have further discussions on the issue as promised after the Berlin talks.

The progress achieved on the fiscal aspect of power sharing will be discussed at length at these discussions, the Minister said. The preparations to the major donor conference to be held on June 9 and 10 in Tokyo, will also be discussed.

"There are positive signs that the major countries are prepared to fund Sri Lanka to enable us to improve the neglected infrastructure.

"The funds received from this donor conference will not be confined to the North and East, the other parts of the country too will be benefit from these funds", the Minister said.

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