Govt confidently facing new challenge in peace process - Loganathan

Rashomi Silva

COLOMBO: The Government is faced with a new challenge of making a fresh initiative to achieve a breakthrough in the talks stalemate with the Nordic facilitator who had presently given up its efforts to bring the Government and the LTTE to the negotiating table.

Diplomatic sources said Norway has informed the Government that they would make no fresh initiatives following the LTTE's refusal to participate in the talks in Oslo early this month.

They said this is the new challenge lays before the Government pointing out that the responsibility of finding the ultimate solution to the decade-long conflict rests with the parties to the conflict and the facilitator can only provide logistical assistance.

Asked how the Government expects to make fresh initiatives to break the deadlock, Deputy head of the Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process (SCOPP) Kethesh Loganathan, said moves in that direction are already on, with steps taken to forging a Southern consensus for a political settlement. He said the main challenge before the Government was to exploring ways and means of linking the Southern consensus with the main negotiating with the LTTE.

Meanwhile, commenting on the move to amend the composition of the truce monitors, he said the Government's decision to agree on an amendment to the CFA on the monitors' composition is to include non- Nordic monitors as requested by the LTTE.

"The Government, despite earlier concerns over potential conflict of interests and complications that arose out of Norway's dual role as the facilitator and the Head of the SLMM, wants the continued existence and operation of the SLMM in view of its commitment to the CFA," he said.

"However, an amendment to the CFA also provides an opportunity to bring into the SLMM other countries whose nationals would have experience in ceasefire monitoring as well as the monitoring of human rights embodied in Clause 2.1 of the CFA. So there is no harm in making a virtue out of a necessity by broadbasing the SLMM," Loganathan added.