A BRIISH MOVE TO TO HOLD A LONDON PEACE SUMMIT TO RESOLVE THE SRI LANKAN CONFLICT

By Walter Jayawardhana

An all party British parliamentary committee will attempt to convey a London peace summit with the participation of the Sri Lanka government, the Tamil Tigers and the peace brokers of Norway to resolve the conflict.

A delegate of the British government, Colombo’s Deputy High Commissioner (ambassador) of Britain Lesley Craig is scheduled to travel to Kilinochchi to convince the leaders of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to take part in the London talks.

The All Party committee of British parliamentarians was formed Wednesday May 2 and Lesley Craig was to travel to Kilinochchi one May 3 but due to an undeclared reason Craig’s trip has been postponed.

Addressing the British House of Commons, the British Foreign Office Minister Kim Howells told the parliamentarians neither the ban on the terrorist group the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) will be lifted nor fund raising for the group will be once again allowed in Britain .

When European Union imposed a ban on the group the LTTE refused to deal with the Scandinavian country members who accepted the EU ban on the terrorist group. Ultimately the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission had to be comprised only of Iceland and Norway. Norway and Iceland are not members of the European Union and have imposed no ban against the LTTE in their countries. Norway freely allows the outfit to engage in fund raising activities in their country. But since that time the bargaining power of the LTTE has been greatly reduced and they are restricted only to two districts of the North and a small jungle patch in the East.

Meanwhile many political parties including the country’s third largest party , the Janata Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) opposes Norway and is virulently against the Norwegians to take part in any matter concerning Sri Lanka. They have been campaigning intensively against the Norwegians ever since the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) between former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran was signed.

Observers note that the controversy has intensified ever since Norwegian peace broker Eric Solheim allegedly transferred his job of drafting the CFA to the Chief ideologue of the LTTE outfit , the Late Anton Balasingham. Tamil opponents of the LTTE have also have protested against the Norwegian participation and has alleged a Norwegian bias in the process.

Meanwhile , coalition partner of the government the JHU has been collaborating with the Norway based Norwegians Against Terrorism outfit who has been attempting to expose the LTTE bias especially of Eric Solheim and his collaborators. . Due to that the Norwegian peace process itself has been ridden with controversy.