Petersen to meet Pirapaharan in Kilinochchi

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 May 2004, 02:47 GMT]
The Norwegian Foreign Minister, Mr.Jan Petersen, and his deputy, Mr. Vidar Helgesen, are scheduled to leave Colombo for Kilinochchi Tuesday morning to meet the LTTE leadership for discussions on issues related to resuming the suspended peace talks, Presidential secretariat sources said.

The LTTE theoretician and political strategist, Mr.Anton Balasingham, and political head, Mr.S.P.Thamilchelvan, will participate with Mr.Pirapaharan in the discussions, sources said. The meeting has raised expectations among a wide section of people that the peace talks are imminent.

Mr.Petersen met with Sri Lanka’s President, Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunge, Monday and had wide-ranging discussions for about an hour for the first time since the minority United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) was voted to power in April 2nd general election.

The United National Front (UNF) government, which had been holding peace negotiations with the LTTE for about two years from December 2001 with the Norwegian facilitation, was defeated in the last general election.

Diplomatic sources said Norwegian facilitators were able to get assurances from the Sri Lanka's President on the modalities to take forward the peace process.

Mr. Petersen is expected to convey the outcome of the talks he had with Ms.Kumaratunge to the LTTE leader, Mr.V.Pirapaharan, when he meets the latter Tuesday around 10 a.m. in Kilinochchi, sources said.