By Shamindra Ferdinando in Geneva
After a second round of talks in April 2006 failed to materialize due to transgression on the part of the LTTE, Norway arranged for the two parties to meet in Oslo on June 8 and 9, 2006. The LTTE refused to meet the government delegation on the basis it wasn’t led by a minister. The LTTE took up the position that Dr. Palitha Kohona wasn’t important enough for them to sit at the negotiating table. The LTTE also objected to the presence of Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) personnel from EU states, Denmark, Sweden and Finland, due to the EU proscribing the LTTE as a terrorist organization.
Had the LTTE heeded President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s call to return to the negotiating table in the immediate aftermath of his victory over UNP candidate, Ranil Wickremesinghe, at the Nov. 2005 presidential polls, there wouldn’t have been a confrontation between the Sri Lankan government and a section of the international community, at the United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC).
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