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Govt. coached for Geneva talks by peace gurus
By Dilmini Samaranayake
The Government is due to begin its final day of consultations with two U.S.-based ‘negotiation experts,’ to prepare for the upcoming peace talks in Geneva.

The moves are a part of Sri Lanka's efforts to encounter LTTE’s veteran negotiator Anton Balasingham and his hardline team. The Government also wants to communicate to the world it was indeed giving the Geneva negotiations its due importance.

The discussion has run since Monday, with almost daily deliberations on how to handle the February talks, which the LTTE says is Sri Lanka's last chance for peace.

Ministers, parliamentarians, heads of the Army, Navy and Air Force, the Police Chief, intelligence chief, officials and lawyers have been present at these round table meetings, with some even venturing to give individual presentations, with special emphasis by legal luminaries on the loopholes of the 2002 Ceasefire Agreement.

Thomas Schaub and Elizarbeth McClintock, connected to the top Harvard Negotiation Project sat on the sidelines of most of the meetings held early last week at the Presidential Secretariat, trying to get a feel of the ground situation ahead of their sessions on Saturday and Sunday.

Admiral Daya Sandagiri, had even ventured to mete out political advice on the controversial ‘merger,’ of the island's North and East. He advised against any moves to permanently merge the North and East.

An unexpected inclusion to the discussion came with the entrance of Prof. G.L. Peiris, former chief negotiator for the Government and Austin Fernando, former Defence Secretary, who also played an integral role in the 2003-2004 peace talks.

Prof. Peiris emphasized the importance of building a ‘rapport,’ with the Tigers.
The two were quizzed at length by their prospective replacements and the extended advisory board on the nitty-grittys of conducting the meeting -how the meeting gets into session, who makes the first statement, how to present facts and how to handle the media.

Mr. Fernando had warned that the next two weeks ahead of the talks were crucial as some of the biggest violations of the truce and themost serious incidents threatening peace had taken place just before or during the previous rounds of peace talks.

All this advice sought from a team whose negotiation tactics and content were most vehemently criticized before and after the Mahinda Rajapaksa administration came into form.

Prof. Peiris was only too glad to give a run-down of talks from Sattahip, Thailand to Hakone, Japan. The Muslim factor at the talks, sea movements and the high-security zone issue were among the other matters discussed.

Media Minister Anura Priyadharshana Yapa confirmed on Thursday that Ministers Jeyaraj Fernandopulle and Rohitha Bogollagama will be the two other ministers in the government team to be led by Health Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva.

Mr. Yapa declined to say who the others in the delegation were but the announcement came hours before diplomat and President’s Counsel Faiz Mustapha informed President Mahinda Rajapaksa that he wanted to stay out of the team. Mr. Mustapha - under pressure from key Muslim parties - was also concerned at being used as a scapegoat and wisely opted to uphold his standing among the community.

Mr. Mustapha had suggested to the President that a Muslim from East be included in the delegation, a move Mr. Rajapakse didn't seem averse to. Ministers Feriel Ashraff and M. Athaulla were two names mooted to fill the slot.
Meanwhile, the Government's mammoth peace support team continued to grow. A special steering committee with between 20-25 members has been appointed to give 'direction,' to the negotiations with the LTTE.

The committee is headed by Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera and includes six ministers, one deputy minister, parliamentarians, ministry secretaries and officials from the Foreign Ministry and the Secretariat Coordinating the Peace Process (SCOPP).

The President has also given the green-light for top lawyer H.L. de Silva -currently based in Australia - to be recalled and included in the advisory team. Mr. De Silva played a prominent role in the case filed by the Jathika Hela Unrumaya (JHU) against the Post-Tsunami Operational Management Structure.
The Government's preparations for Geneva have not gone unnoticed by the LTTE.

"We are very happy to hear that the Government is getting training for the talks. We don't need such training, we have already been briefed what to do and we will simply go ahead with it," second in command of the Tiger team S. P. Thamilselvan said after a meeting with the Norwegian and Swiss ambassadors on Thursday.

Mr. Yapa said the Geneva talks will be ‘on a meaningful cease-fire.’ And despite previous pledges to amend the accord, the Government is very aware that the LTTE will not budge from its stand to only talk about the ‘implementation,’ of the truce agreement, a stand it reiterated in its latest news bulletin.

"LTTE is only prepared to discuss the full and speedy implementation of CFA," the monthly Vuduthalaippulikal said. "Only way to avoid war and create peaceful environment in the Tamil homeland is to implement the CFA in full."
However, the official organ didn't stop short of delivering its ultimate threat.
"If Mahinda government rejects this and tries to drag time then, as stated by the Tamil National Leader in his Maveerar Day speech, LTTE has no other alternative but to intensify the struggle in order to win the freedom for the Tamil speaking people."

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