CELIGNY (Switzerland): A frosty hand-shake in this Swiss village marked the start of talks aimed at dousing war fears in tropical Sri Lanka where 60,000 people have been killed in three-decades of ethnic bloodshed.
Invited by top Norwegian peace envoy Erik Solheim, the chief negotiators from the Sri Lankan government and Tamil Tiger rebels moved to shake hands.
But the gulf between the two men was too much for photographers.
Tiger negotiator Anton Balasingham almost looked away while shaking hands with his Sri Lankan government counterpart Nimal Siripala de Silva, adding a further chill to the Alpine cold outside the 18th-century Chateau de Bossey, the venue for the two-day talks.
Balasingham was egged on by cameramen to move closer as Norway’s Solheim, former deputy foreign minister Vidar Helgesen and Swiss diplomat Urs Ziswiler stood behind the duo.
The body language of the two chief negotiators at the start of what was billed as an ice-breaking meeting underscored the deep mistrust that dogs peace efforts, diplomats associated with the process said.
Just before their last meeting in March 2003, the Tiger negotiator and his then government counterpart usually patted each other on the back and smiled warmly at one another before television crews.
The bonhomie is clearly gone and much blood has since flowed under the bridge. Some 153 people were killed in fresh violence between December and January before the parties agreed to the Swiss talks.
Solheim acknowledged that trust between the Tigers and the new Sri Lankan government which came to power in November was limited.
“Confidence can only increase, but they have started at a very low level,” Solheim said, setting the stage for the two sides to get on with talks behind closed doors.
He stressed that expectations from the two-day talks should be “realistic” and hopefully there would be agreement to meet again when they wind up negotiations on Thursday.
Swiss police cordoned off the conference venue, setting up metal detectors, and frisked journalists and photographers allowed briefly into the chateau overlooking the Alps and Lake Geneva where the two delegations were closeted.
Inside, there were no flags or symbols of either the Tigers or the Sri Lankan government, only neat flower arrangements on their tables
The two sides had been squabbling about a venue for months. The bickering saw a deterioration of the Norwegian arranged truce which stretched to breaking point last year.
The participants from steamy Sri Lanka, where temperatures can rise to 45 degrees Celsuis (113 Fahrenheit), were quickly adopting to the 5-degree-Celsuis (41 Fahrenheit) Swiss winter weather.
Diplomats said the Alpine climate may help cool things down.
“I don’t make a comparison between meteorology and politics...but it is a fact that the climate and the environment can have an effect on people,” the Swiss ambassador to Sri Lanka Bernadino Ragazzoni told AFP.
“We are happy that the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) and the government of Sri Lanka agreed to strengthen the implementation of the ceasefire which had come under great strain.”—AFP
