Sri Lanka says peace brokers can't visit rebel north

Sri Lanka has refused requests by Norwegian peace mediators to visit rebel territory, and said fresh peace talks hinged on Tamil Tiger guarantees to lay down arms and stick to a negotiation timetable. Nordic ceasefire monitors quit the country this year after the six-year Norway brokered truce disintegrated.
Earlier this week, Seewaratnam Puleedevan, secretary-general of the rebels' Peace Secretariat, said he wanted to meet directly with peace facilitators.
However, the government said the team headed by Norway's Special Peace Envoy John Hansen Baur, would, for now, not be allowed to visit the rebels' northern stronghold.
"We don't want -- Mr. Baur coming up, so that they can take photograph of him and say 'Mr. Baur has come to see the terrible sufferings inflicted on Tamil people of the Tamil Ealam'. It can't be propaganda," Rajiva Wijesinghe, the secretary general of the Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process (SCOPP), told Reuters on late Wednesday.
"Baur had wanted to go. But we have told him, we want a very clear idea of why you are going. It would mean a commitment of the LTTE and what they want Baur to come and talk about."
The government said it would only reconsider restarting the dead peace process when the rebels agreed to a clear road map to ending the 25-year civil war that has killed more than 70,000 people.
The government's stance comes amid intensified fighting between the military and rebels who want an independent state in the north and east.

"What the Sri Lankan government wants is -- the Norwegians have to give us a clear road map," said Wijesinghe.
"Unless you have a clear road map that leads to a democratic political solution, I don't think you can take any LTTE claim to negotiate a deal.
"Part of that road map would be a ceasefire and commitment ... guaranteeing of laying down of arms. That road map should make very clear to us, there is a very genuine commitment to negotiate to a political solution."
If the Tigers want to pursue peace talks without laying down arms, they should at least guarantee de-commissioning of arms, Wijesinghe added.
Meanwhile, the military said they said on Thursday they were closing in on rebel leader Valupillai Prabhakan.
"The Security Forces are attacking Mullaittiuvu, Prabhakaran's hideout, from several directions. The army's aim is to capture Prabhakaran, who is holed up in a bunker, alive," army commander Lieutenant-General Sarath Fonseka said.
"Prabhakaran is believed to be living in an underground bunker in the area. Forces have already regained several hundred square kilometres where the Tigers held sway and they have to march forward another 21 miles to achieve the final goals."

Source: Reuters