November 15, 2003	Saturday	Ramazan 19, 1424

COLOMBO, Nov 14: Norway said on Friday it would suspend its efforts to end Sri Lanka’s three decades of ethnic bloodshed until the president and prime minister resolved their power struggle.

Norwegian Deputy Prime Minister Vidar Helgesen, who stayed an extra day here for talks with the key players, said the mediators needed “clarity” on who was in charge of the peace process.

“Until such clarity is re-established, there is no space for further efforts by the Norwegian government to assist the parties,” Helgesen told reporters after three days of mediation.

“This is one single impediment Norway can do nothing about,” he said. “So we will go home and wait.”

He said Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who revived the peace bid after his election in December 2001, was effectively out of the picture after being undercut by President Chandrika Kumaratunga, a critic of the premier’s proposed concessions to Tamil Tiger rebels.

“There is not a stable peace in Sri Lanka today,” Helgesen said. “I think, however, that the parties have committed to maintain the ceasefire.”

“We need to make clear that the ceasefire will be much more difficult to sustain in a political vacuum,” he said.

“If progress in the political negotiations is made impossible, the ceasefire will become increasingly fragile.”

Kumaratunga invited Norway in 1999 to help broker peace but she since has accused Oslo of being too soft on the rebels, whose three-decade campaign to set up a homeland for the Tamil minority has claimed more than 60,000 lives.

Norway in February 2002 arranged a ceasefire between Wickremesinghe’s government and the Tigers, which both the rebels and the president have assured remains in force.

Helgesen said he raised with Kumaratunga her remarks that Wickremesinghe’s truce deal with the rebels was “invalid.”

“We took it up with the president, but she said she will uphold it (the ceasefire),” Helgesen said.

Kumaratunga on November 4 suspended parliament for two weeks and took over three key ministries including defence, giving her control of all security forces and the police.

The Norwegian envoy said Wickremesinghe felt he was no longer in a position to negotiate with the Tigers, who told the mediators they wanted security guarantees because of the crisis.

“The prime minister can’t take responsibility for the peace process and is unable to give security guarantees,” Helgesen said.

“He would not be able to take decisions and make compromises at the table. So effectively, he has said that he is out of the peace process,” he said.

The latest Norwegian mission was arranged before the political crisis and was primarily aimed at arranging a face-to-face meeting between the Colombo government and the Tamil Tigers to discuss a rebel blueprint for peace.

“Peace talks could have started tomorrow,” Helgesen said, “provided there was clarity about who is holding political authority and responsibility on behalf of the government to ensure the continuation of the ceasefire agreement and the resumption of peace negotiations.”

“Until last week there was such clarity,” Helgesen said. “Today there is no such clarity.”

Helgesen and Norwegian Special Advisor Erik Solheim met on Thursday in the rebel-held northern town of Kilinochchi where the Tamil Tigers’ supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran told them “there should be political stability in Colombo for the peace talks to continue.”

The Tigers pulled out of direct negotiations in April after accusing the government of failing to deliver on promises made at six rounds of discussions since September last year.

However, the rebels ended their boycott on November 1, a day after unveiling their plan for an interim self-governing Authority in their war-torn strongholds.—AFP