May 24, 2003	Saturday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 21,1424

COLOMBO: The Tamil Tigers’ renewal on Thursday of their demand of a rebel-led interim administration in Sri Lanka’s north-east, in return for resuming peace talks, is a welcome move that keeps the door open to continued negotiations, analysts here say.

Diplomats also said it was reassuring that at a press conference on Thursday, S.P Tamilchelvan, head of the Tigers’ political wing, expressed the group’s commitment to peace and said that a military solution was not being considered despite the suspension of the talks for a month now.

“That’s reassuring — the fact that they are keeping the door open for negotiations despite the current breakdown,” said one diplomat based here.

But Tamilchelvan said they would boycott a donors’ meeting in Tokyo on June 9-10 unless the government gives a guarantee — through Norwegian facilitators — that it would create the interim administrative mechanism for the north-east, the region most ravaged by the nearly 20-year-old ethnic conflict.

Many, including Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, were hoping the rebels would reverse their decision not to attend the Tokyo summit.

The government has been fighting Kumaratunga’s sudden takeover of a government department, fearing that it would pave the way for more departments or ministries to come under the president’s wing.

Kumaratunga, from the opposition People’s Alliance party, has been involved in a shaky cohabitation arrangement with the United National Party-led cabinet of Wickremesinghe since the UNP won parliamentary polls in December 2001.

There were hopes that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam would at least decide to send a low-level delegation to the Tokyo meeting instead of boycotting it. There, donor governments and institutions are expected to pledge $3 billion worth of loans and grants to Sri Lanka.

Jehan Perera, media director at the National Peace Council (NPC), a non-government peace group, says the LTTE’s demand for an interim administration in the north-east is actually not unreasonable.

The LTTE also expressed concern that the past year has seen little development in the north-east region in terms of rehabilitation, reconstruction and resettlement of more than 500,000 displaced minority Tamils.

The rebels’ firm demand of an interim administrative structure came in a letter sent by its chief negotiator Anton Balasingham to Norwegian Deputy Foreign Minister Vidar Helgesen on Wednesday.

Balasingham said the creation of this unit would help rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran “take a crucial decision on the resumption of peace talks and participation at the (Tokyo) donor conference”.

Balasingham rejected a government proposal to create a new model where local government institutions would be involved in development and reconstruction activities.

The LTTE wants a legal administrative structure with more powers that can take care of massive aid flows from the Tokyo meeting.—Dawn/The InterPress News Service.