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Ban on LTTE will only be suspended
The government is unlikely to lift the proscription on the LTTE in its entirety, but only suspend the ban for the duration of the talks, authoritative sources told The Sunday Times yesterday. The decision follows a series of discussions between Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and Attorney General K.C. Kamalasabeyson on the legal implication of lifting the ban.

The Sunday Times learns the Attorney General has given a written opinion about the issue. AG's Department sources said that the lifting of the ban was largely a political decision. LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and chief negotiator Anton Balasingham at the April 10 news conference insisted that the ban should be lifted before the talks began.

In a related development, the Government is reported to be agreeable to include the establishment of an interim administration of the north east in the agenda for talks which are due to begin in mid-June in Thailand.

But government sources said they were awaiting the LTTE's position on the interim administration before making any commitments. Mr. Balasingham during talks with Tamil parliamentarians, SLMC leader Rauff Hakeem and Norway's Deputy Foreign Minister Vidar Helgesen has reiterated that the setting up of the interim administration would be one of the main issues to be taken up at the talks.

Mr. Helgesen on Friday met President Chandrika Kumaratunga to brief her on the peace process. During the talks, Mr. Helgesen was questioned whether the de-commissioning of weapons by the LTTE was on the agenda, but he had confessed that it was not part of the process.

Mr. Helgesen yesterday cautioned that there could be delays and major setbacks when core political issues were taken up for discussion between the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE.

Mr. Helgesen at the end of a series of meetings in Sri Lanka told members of the Foreign Correspondents Association that he was satisfied with the progress of peace process, but there were more challenges to be faced.

He said he believed that the peace process might be even 'moving too fast' and wanted the government and the LTTE to take more time to prepare the agenda for political talks. He said the government and the LTTE needed time for the decisions to reach the local officials and their members.

He said the concern about the peace process was the quality and not the speed and expressed his happiness at the 'relaxed nature' of LTTE leader Prabhakaran, which indicated his willingness to enter political mainstream.

Meanwhile, government sources denied that the LTTE had lodged a complaint against the government for violation of the ceasefire agreement on the issue of fishing rights in the north.

These sources said that the Norwegians had so far not informed the government about any such complaint and added that the complaint was limited to a pro-LTTE website.

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