Clear roadmap 'must' for talks - SCOPP

The Government has refused requests by Norwegian peace mediators to visit uncleared areas and said fresh peace talks hinged on Tiger guarantees to lay down arms and stick to a negotiation timetable.

Nordic ceasefire monitors quit the country this year after the six-year Norway brokered truce disintegrated. Earlier this week, Seewaratnam Puleedevan, secretary-general of the rebels' Peace Secretariat, said he wanted to meet directly with peace facilitators.

However, the Government said the team headed by Norway's Special Peace Envoy John Hansen Bauer, would, for now, not be allowed to visit the Wanni.

"We don't want Bauer coming up, so that they can take photographs of him and say 'Mr. Bauer has come to see the terrible sufferings inflicted on Tamil people of the Tamil Eelam'.

It can't be propaganda," Rajiva Wijesinha, Secretary-General of the Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process (SCOPP), told Reuters on late Wednesday. "Bauer had wanted to go. But we have told him, we want a very clear idea of why you are going. It would mean a commitment of the LTTE and what they want Bauer to come and talk about."

The Government said it would only consider restarting the dead peace process when the Tigers agreed to a clear road map to ending the 25-year war. "What the Sri Lankan Government wants is - the Norwegians have to give us a clear road map," said Wijesinha.

"Unless you have a clear road map that leads to a democratic political solution, I don't think you can take any LTTE claim to negotiate a deal.

"Part of that road map would be a ceasefire and commitment ... guaranteeing of laying down of arms. That road map should make very clear to us, there is a very genuine commitment to negotiate to a political solution."

If the Tigers want to pursue peace talks without laying down arms, they should at least guarantee de-commissioning of arms, Wijesinha added.

Reuters