Norway envoy meets Sri Lanka's Tigers to save truce
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-01-25 15:19

Norwegian peace envoy Erik Solheim met Tamil Tiger rebels on Wednesday for crunch talks aimed at averting a new civil war, saying he did not know who was behind overnight explosions in the capital.

No-one was injured in the five bombs or grenades in Colombo residential districts, but the sound of blasts and of army vehicles racing through streets reminded some of two decades of conflict during which Tiger suicide bombers attacked the city.

"I have absolutely no way of knowing whether those bomb explosions were politically related or not," Solheim said after arriving in the de facto rebel capital on a Sri Lankan Air Force helicopter. He said he had nothing else to say before talks to meet the Tamil Tigers' leader.

Police said they did not know who carried out the blasts, but some diplomats said they suspected nationalists from the Sinhalese majority trying to disrupt Solheim's meeting with rebel chief Velupillai Prabhakaran, a meeting some say could be followed by a new peace effort. But if it fails, the country could descend into war once again.

The army accused the Tigers of throwing a grenade into a police bunker just south of rebel lines early on Wednesday, wounding one policeman, the latest in a string of attacks that have stretched the 2002 truce Solheim brokered to its limit.

The army also said two suspected Tiger members had been shot dead by unidentified gunmen in the north.

Prabhakaran, seen as one of the world's most ruthless guerrilla leaders who is unwilling to compromise in his demands for a Tamil homeland, rarely meets anyone outside his senior aides, let alone foreigners.

But Solheim is believed to have struck up a rapport with him in several meetings since Norway was asked to spearhead the peace effort.

"There's a lot riding on this visit," said a senior aid worker, rising violence already affecting his agency's relief work aimed at rebuilding after the 2004 tsunami. "Maybe too much."

Analysts say a November election boycott by the Tigers destroyed the chances of the presidential candidate seen most likely to secure peace -- a sign, some fear, they are tired of peace. The stock exchange has lost a quarter of its value since the poll.

PRAYING FOR A VENUE

The Tigers deny involvement in recent attacks, though few believe them, but say since the first ambushes in December, army abuses have risen and that the military is killing Tamil civilians -- and this must stop if the island is to avoid war.

Solheim's initial challenge is to bring the two sides to a venue for direct talks. Even this might not be easy.

Official sources said the government was willing to go anywhere but Norway, while the rebels have said they will not go anywhere else. Some of President Mahinda Rajapakse's allies say Norway has been too soft on the Tigers and think the Nordic country is not the appropriate venue.

Many in Kilinochchi, the small market town that is the headquarters of the de facto Tiger state covering a seventh of the island, say they are praying he succeeds.

The conflict killed over 64,000 people until the truce, leaving Kilinochchi and other towns all but destroyed, farmland covered in landmines and malnutrition rates in the minority Tamil north and east twice as high as in the rest of Sri Lanka.

"Man is looking for war but God will look after us," said Theivannai Mahendran, a mother of seven children who was shopping in the town's main market. She said she and 100 other women fasted for peace for two days earlier in the week.

"We should get an answer to our prayers," she said.

But young men in the town say they are willing to fight.

"We are full of expectations about the talks but it looks like war will resume," said Arulchelvan Veerakathyar, a 20-year-old manning a bicycle stand in the town. He said he had been trained by the Tigers and was ready for war. "If there's another battle, everyone will join."