A round of internal talks involving the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, LTTE, constitutional affairs committee is currently taking place, from 6 to 10 October, in the Glencree Centre for Reconciliation in Wicklow. These talks follow on from an earlier round of internal LTTE talks held in Paris in August 2003 to discuss the ongoing peace process in Sri Lanka. I discussed these talks with Prime Minister Wickremesinghe and Foreign Minister Fernando of Sri Lanka during our bilateral meeting which took place in the margins of the United Nations General Assembly on 25 September. Facilitating these talks is of course fully in consonance with the joint statement issued following the EU Troika-Sri Lanka ministerial meeting on the same day, which I also attended. The statement expresses hope that the result of LTTE's internal consultative process on the Sri Lankan Government's proposal for an interim administration will lead to their resuming the peace talks at an early stage with a view to ensuring that the peace dividends reach people in all parts of the country.
In the 1980s, the LTTE resorted to violence to achieve a separate state, Tamil Eelam, in the north and east of Sri Lanka. A peace process was initiated between the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE in December 2001, under Norwegian Government facilitation. The two sides subsequently negotiated a ceasefire which came into force in February 2002. Six rounds of peace negotiations have taken place to date. However, in April 2003, the LTTE withdrew from negotiations, claiming it was not receiving adequate dividends from the peace process. It claimed that not enough was being done to rebuild war-ravaged parts of the north-east and demanded more of a role in the administration of reconstruction funding. The LTTE has continued to honour the terms of the ceasefire. Following intensive negotiations involving the Sri Lankan Government, the LTTE and international mediators, the Sri Lankan Government put forward proposals for an interim administration in the disputed north and east of Sri Lanka. The meeting this week in Ireland is intended to give the LTTE an opportunity to fully consider these proposals.
The LTTE delegation consists of 11 negotiators and support staff. Two Sri Lankan Government civil servants will address the participants, as well as a number of international academics, legal and constitutional experts. The participants in the talks are to number 28 in total.
While the Government is facilitating the talks as a demonstration of its full support for the Sri Lankan peace process, and the talks enjoy the full support of the Sri Lankan Government, the Government is not represented at the talks. This follows the precedent of the first round of talks in Paris at which the French Government was not represented. The Government respects the nature of the talks, intended as they are to be an internal forum for the LTTE to prepare a response to the proposals for an interim administration. However, officials of my Department will have contact with the participants in the margins of the talks.