New peace envoy to meet political leaders

Rashomi Silva

COLOMBO: Jon Hassen-Bauer, the new Nordic special peace envoy will meet President Mahinda Rajapaksa and other political leaders this week in the run-up to second round of the Geneva talks , diplomatic sources said yesterday.

"Hassen-Bauer who arrived in Sri Lanka yesterday is expected to meet political leaders across the political divide, the LTTE and leaders of other Tamil political parties," Tom Knappskog, Norwegian embassy spokesperson said.

He said: "The envoy will meet political leaders from different political parties, except the JVP and the JHU."

"The idea of the four-day visit is to enable the new envoy to familiarise himself with the ground situation here and to meet decision makers," Knappskog said.

According to diplomatic sources, Erik Solhiem, the predecessor of Hassen-Bauer, would join the new envoy on Thursday.

Meanwhile the LTTE spokesperson Daya Master said that Wednesday's discussions with the envoy would most probably centre on the upcoming peace talks.

"The leadership has not yet officially released the talks agenda," he said. "But from what I understand they would talk about the current situation, such as the paramilitary issue and the present situation in Batticaloa."

"The Karuna issue is likely to dominate the talks", he said.

He said that the LTTE had already told the Government that there would be no progress in the peace front unless the Government makes a genuine effort to implement its pledges.