Untitled Document

Front Page

Government, PA in race to woo New Delhi
By Harinda Vidanage
With India maintaining a low profile at Sri Lanka's Oslo peace support meeting, both the government and the main opposition were moving to woo the New Delhi leadership.

Government negotiator Milinda Moragoda flew to New Delhi to brief Indian leaders on the Oslo meeting and the peace talks while the PA was lining up a heavyweight delegation for a series of meetings with the Vajpayee government.

After weeks of confusion and conflicting reports, India sat on the fence of the Oslo meeting, being ceremonially represented by the first secretary of its mission in Norway, while other countries sent top-level delegations.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told Parliament on Friday that India was fully supportive of the peace process but had maintained a low profile at the Oslo meeting because of legal problems over the LTTE presence.

India still maintains a ban on the LTTE while Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran is wanted for the assassination of former premier Rajiv Gandhi. But PA spokesman Sarath Amunugama said India had distanced itself from the peace process and the PA felt New Delhi should come in to play a more effective role.

He said the PA delegation probably comprising Mangala Samaraweera, Anura Bandaranaike and himself, had already got appointments with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha, Congress Party leader Sonia Gandhi and other leaders. They also hope to meet Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalitha Jeyaram who is taking a strong anti-LTTE stand.

Dr. Amunugama said they would brief Indian leaders on what they saw as the real situation of the peace process and push for a review with greater Indian participation.

The PA leadership has in recent weeks attacked the role being played by Oslo and accused the government of allowing the LTTE to set up a de facto separate state under cover of peace talks.

The MEP is also likely to join the PA delegation on its mission to New Delhi and party leader Dinesh Gunawardene said he hoped to be on the mission. Meanwhile, government and LTTE negotiators were gathering in Oslo for the third session of the peace talks. LTTE negotiators S. P. Thamilchelvan and Karuna flew to Oslo from Colombo on Friday while Chief Negotiator Anton Balasingham was due directly from London.

Government negotiators G. L. Peiris and Rauff Hakeem left for Oslo yesterday while Mr. Moragoda was due to fly from New Delhi.

Back to Front Page