Norway puts Lankan parties on notice

Norway was reconsidering its peacebroker role yesterday as Tiger rebels aborted talks and demanded the removal of ceasefire monitors from European Union member states.

The collapse of face-to-face talks arranged by Norway fuelled fears that Sri Lanka was sliding back to full-scale war amid deteriorating security and the killing of at least 680 people since December, according to an official count.

Norway yesterday blamed the European Union for contributing to a breakdown in talks between Sri Lanka and Tamil Tigers which has thrown the question of further Norwegian mediation wide open.

But Norwegian observers also faulted the EU for offending the rebels at a sensitive time, and doing its own members a disservice at the same time.

"The EU decision was taken on the basis of certain criteria about which organisations should be on the list, without taking into consideration the adverse consequences the decision might have for their own member states," said Stein Toennesson, director of the Oslo Peace Research Institute (PRIO).

"The parties must take responsibility for the worsening situation," Norway's top peace envoy Erik Solheim told AFP in Oslo. "They have been acting contrary to our advice."

"There is at the present time no room for a Norwegian initiative in the peace process," an angry Solheim said.

However, the Sri Lankan government Friday reiterated that it was still ready for a peaceful settlement to the ethnic conflict, which has claimed at least 60,000 lives since 1972.

"We have not lost hope," media minister Anura Yapa said. "Still, we believe we can start negotiations and come into some agreement with the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam)."

Norway demanded Friday that Sri Lanka and Tamil Tiger rebels reaffirm their commitment to the Oslo-led peace process, saying their replies would dictate its future participation.

In a hard-hitting statement blaming Tigers for the impasse, Norway said the situation was grave after the parties failed to discuss the safety of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) observing an already troubled truce.

The rebels, meanwhile, called for removal of truce monitors from European Union states, following an EU decision last month to put the LTTE on its list of terrorist organisations.

Norway, Sri Lanka's peacebroker since January 2000, called the failure to hold the meeting between Colombo and the LTTE on Thursday a major blow to their peace efforts.

"The Norwegian government is profoundly concerned with the gravity of the situation on the ground, the objection by the LTTE to collaborate with the SLMM with its present composition, the lack of dialogue between the parties ..." Norway said.