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Lanka-LTTE talks fail, violence erupts
Published on Mon, Oct 30, 2006 at 09:45, Updated on Mon, Oct 30, 2006 at 09:48 in 
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Geneva: The Sri Lankan government and Tamil Tiger rebels failed to reach a breakthrough in a new round of peace talks in an atmosphere clouded by new tensions in the Indian Ocean island nation.
Weekend talks concluded Sunday without the two sides even agreeing on a date for a new meeting, said Erik Solheim, Norway's minister for international development who was leading the negotiations.
Hopes were slim from the outset that a 2002 cease-fire could be revived, with both sides refusing to give way on key issues, including the route by which aid supplies could travel to the northern Jaffna Peninsula.
''No agreement was reached by the parties on how to address the humanitarian crisis,'' Solheim told reporters.
Sri Lanka's Health Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva, who led the government delegation, said the government offer of a sea route was cheaper and more efficient, but that the rebels refused.
''The ball is in the LTTE's court,'' he said referring to the rebels by their formal name, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
The LTTE said in a statement that allowing humanitarian supplies to pass along the closed highway was a precondition for future talks, adding that sea access would not provide sufficient relief to the Jaffna region which has been cut off by fierce fighting, leaving thousands without food and other essential supplies.
''Closure of the A9 highway has resulted in an open prison for more than 600,000 people,'' the LTTE said.
The government indicated earlier during the talks that it was worried the LTTE, which is banned in Canada, the United States, the European Union and India, would use the highway to raise funds for their cause.
Rohitha Bogollagama, Sri Lanka's development minister and delegate at the talks, told The Associated Press that the rebels would profit from aid trucks going through their territory.
''One of the factors that has to be taken into account is the practice of the LTTE of levying extortionate fees on transport through the areas that they control,'' Bogollagama said.
In an attempt to present at least one successful outcome of the talks, Solheim praised both sides for assuring Norwegian mediators that they would refrain from launching any new offensives. But he warned that ''the proof of that pudding is in the eating.''
Earlier Sunday a Tamil Tiger delegate had warned of ''serious consequences'' if the island nation's military advances while negotiations are under way.
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