COLOMBO, April 25: Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger guerillas on Sunday demanded that talks be based on their proposal for self-rule after the president sought to restart negotiations in a move seen as aimed at securing support for her shaky government.
The Tigers said President Chandrika Kumaratunga's minority government should accept their proposal made in October to set up an Interim Self-Governing Authority (ISGA) in rebel-held areas.
Kumaratunga in a major policy shift invited Norway to resume its mediation shortly after her candidate for parliament speaker lost Thursday in a fiercely contested vote that underscored the government's lack of stability.
Tamils and Muslims voted against her Freedom Alliance which had in the past accused Norway of bias in negotiations to end the three decades of bloodshed that has killed over 60,000 people.
"Given the political reality in parliament, she is trying to consolidate her position through the peace process," said Jayadeva Uyangoda, the head of the Colombo University's political science department.
Asian diplomats close to the peace process said reviving talks offered Kumaratunga a way to secure the tacit support of the 22 members of parliament who are proxies of the LTTE.
"The president had wanted the talks to start even before the election of the speaker on Thursday," an Asian diplomat said. "There had been some delays in getting through to the Norwegian prime minister, otherwise her plan was obviously to start the talks process and secure the 22 MPs' support for her candidate for speaker."
Ltte spokesman Daya Master said the Tigers were awaiting a formal request from Norway to restart talks.Tiger supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran told his 22 proxy legislators on Tuesday that they should use their unprecedented leverage in parliament to pressure Kumaratunga to agree to talks.
"The LTTE leader, Mr Prabhakaran, reiterated the ISGA proposals... adding that Sri Lanka's president should accept this as a basis for the talks," Master said. "If this is accepted as a basis for talks, then the chances of LTTE participating in the talks and the peace process being taken forward without disruptions are good," Master told the pro-rebel Tamilnet website.
Under the LTTE blueprint, the rebels are seeking greater political and financial autonomy in the embattled northern and eastern regions. Kumaratunga's party rejected the proposal after it was unveiled as a stepping stone to a separate state.
The president's junior coalition partner, the Marxist JVP or People's Liberation Front, is opposed to any concessions to the Tigers. The LTTE suspended negotiations in April 2003 after six rounds of face-to-face talks with the former government of prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.
Norway also suspended mediation in November after Kumaratunga sacked three ministers in Wickremesinghe's government which she accused of conceding too much to the Tigers. Kumaratunga three months later used her sweeping powers to dissolve the government and call elections four years ahead of schedule. -AFP
