The LTTE blindsided the Norwegian government by refusing to meet their government foes for talks in Oslo about the safety of truce monitors.
COLOMBO: Sri Lankan government delegates prepared to return on Friday from talks in Oslo without meeting Tamil Tiger rebels as mediator Norway asked if the two sides stood by their ceasefire and a senior rebel warned of war.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) blindsided Norwegian diplomats on Thursday by refusing to meet a Sri Lankan government delegation for talks about the safety and operation of the 57-person Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM).
"The LTTE did not turn up -- I guess one had to come back,'' deputy head of the government peace secretariat Kethesh Loganathan said. ''But as far as the government is concerned, the peace option remains on the table all the time.''
The rebels demanded the withdrawal of monitors from European Union countries, which last month listed the rebels as terrorists.
That would remove the mission's Swedish head and leave it with only 20 staff from non-EU states Norway and Iceland. The government wants the EU nations to stay.
"It is quite bleak,'' said Jehan Perera, head of the National Peace Council think tank. ''It looks like a planned effort by the LTTE to undermine what is left of the peace process.''
The Tigers are sticklers for hierarchy and refused to meet the government delegation because it contained no Sri Lankan ministers.
They also said they were angry the government had failed to implement promises made at talks in February to stop anti-Tiger Tamil armed groups operating in their territory.
''We are training our people village by village,'' LTTE eastern political leader Daya Mohan said. ''The government is seriously engaged in bringing about the Final War. We hold the government totally responsible for the present situation.''
Norway, which brokered the original 2002 truce, said it had sent an unprecedented letter to Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse and Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, asking five questions about their commitment to the peace process.
The letter asked whether the two parties wanted SLMM to continue operating, whether they would give it security guarantees and whether they were willing to amend the current ceasefire to allow continued functioning of the mission.
But the first question was more stark. ''Will the parties stand committed to the ceasefire agreement of 22 February 2002?'' the letter asked. ''The responses... to these questions will determine which steps will have to be taken by the Royal Norwegian Government and SLMM, in close partnership with other actors in the international community.''
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