Norway cautiously optimistic on Sri Lanka peace process

Norway's special peace envoy on Sri Lanka's fragile peace process between the government and the Tamil rebels has expressed cautious optimism on his latest effort, the leader of the country's main Muslim party told reporters Wednesday.

Rauff Hakeem, the leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, after meeting with the visiting Norwegian peace envoy Jon Hanssen- Bauer said the envoy had expressed "cautious optimism" on the chances of the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eealm (LTTE) sitting down for talks.

Hakeem said that Hanssen-Bauer had conveyed to both parties that all hostile acts must cease in order to create conditions suitable for talks.

Hanssen-Bauer visited the LTTE rebels on Tuesday with a commitment by the government to re-start the peace negotiations marred by high intensity military action since late July.

Confusion still remains as to the outcome of the Norwegian envoy's latest visit, which began on Monday with conflicting stories of the LTTE agreeing unconditionally to re-start direct talks and the rebels calling to halt all military offensives by the government troops as a pre-condition to the resumption of talks.

The government officials say the President Mahinda Rajapakse's latest position on holding talks with the Tigers is set to be released late on Wednesday.

Even the visit of Hanssen-Bauer has not led to the deescalation of the military clashes.

On Tuesday the rebels accused the Air Force of bombing in the north just 20 km away from the location of the Norwegian envoy's meeting with the rebel political leadership.

The military said the air raids on rebel positions had continued on Wednesday as well.

Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe, the military spokesman, said that three rebel artillery positions had been raided as they used the locations to attack the troops in the northern Jaffna peninsula.

The Norwegian efforts to kick start the process stalled in 2003 have been of no avail in the midst of escalation of violence since December 2005.

Over 2,000 people have been killed in the conflict since then adding to over 64,000 killed between the mid-1980s and February 2002 when the Norwegians brokered a ceasefire.

Source: Xinhua