US embassy cable - 03COLOMBO824

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 COLOMBO 000824 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR SA, SA/INS, S/CT; NSC FOR 
E. MILLARD 
 
LONDON FOR POL/RIEDEL 
 
E.O. 12958:   DECL: 05-16-13 
TAGS: PGOV, PTER, PINS, CE, NO, JA, Human Rights 
SUBJECT:  Norwegian FM presses Tigers, but no sign of 
give yet; Latest re cohabitation stresses 
 
Refs:  Colombo 805, and previous 
 
(U) Classified by Lewis Amselem, Deputy Chief of 
Mission.  Reasons:  1.5 (b,d) 
 
1. (C) SUMMARY:  Norwegian FM Petersen met with the 
Tigers on May 15.  Despite his best efforts, the Tigers 
did not say they will return to the talks, nor did they 
commit to attend the Tokyo donors conference.  The 
Japanese Embassy has confirmed that it has received no 
further word from the Tigers re Tokyo.  In other news, 
the cohabitation situation remains tense as the 
president and the PM continue to bicker.  Until these 
snarls are cleared up, the GSL will continue to be in a 
bind.  END SUMMARY. 
 
2.  (C) NORWEGIAN FM PRESSES TIGERS:  Norwegian Foreign 
Minister Jan Petersen met with Liberation Tigers of 
Tamil Eelam (LTTE) leader V. Prabhakaran and other key 
LTTE officials on May 15.  GoN Deputy Foreign Minister 
Vidar Helgesen and Ambassador Hans Brattskar also 
participated in the meeting, which took place in the 
town of Kilinochchi in the Tiger-controlled Wanni area 
of north-central Sri Lanka.  Petersen reportedly used 
the meeting to press the LTTE to return to the peace 
talks with the Sri Lankan government and to commit to 
attend the June donors conference in Tokyo.  In 
response, the Tigers reiterated their position that 
unless immediate action was taken to address the 
humanitarian situation in the north, they would not go 
to Tokyo or resume participation in the peace talks. 
Voicing another of their long-standing demands, the 
Tigers also said that the GSL must take immediate steps 
to reduce the size of its security zones in Jaffna. 
 
3.  (C) JAPANESE MULL OVER TOKYO:  In additional news re 
the peace process, Koji Yagi, Japanese Embassy poloff, 
told us May 16 that his government had not received any 
word from the Tigers re their attendance at the Tokyo 
conference.  (Note:  Per Reftels, Japanese Special Envoy 
Akashi had set May 14 as the deadline for the Tigers to 
reconsider their previous statements that they would not 
attend the Tokyo meeting.)  Yagi said his embassy had 
heard that the LTTE might be planning to send Japan a 
letter requesting a postponement in the Tokyo conference 
so the GSL had "time" to meet Tiger demands.  Queried as 
to what the GoJ's plans were re the conference at this 
point, Yagi allowed that the issue was very problematic 
for his government.  He said the GoJ continued to review 
what to do next. 
 
4.  (SBU) TAMIL POLITICIANS MEET THE LTTE:  In other 
news re the peace track, a group of Tamil National 
Alliance (TNA) politicians met with the LTTE leadership 
in the Wanni on May 13.  After the meeting, a joint 
LTTE-TNA statement was issued that stressed the LTTE's 
continued support of a negotiated political settlement 
of the dispute.  Re the peace talks and the Tokyo 
conference, Mission has heard that the Tigers used the 
meeting with the TNA to reiterate their well-known 
stance that the GSL had to meet their demands before 
they agreed to cooperate. 
 
5.  (C) COHABITATION BICKERING CONTINUES:  The latest 
news re Sri Lanka's tense cohabitation situation is that 
President Kumaratunga has sent a letter to Prime 
Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on May 14 stating that she 
would not change her decision re the takeover of the 
Development Lotteries Board.  (Note:  Late last week, 
per Reftels, the president announced that she was taking 
over the lotteries board.  The GSL has refused to 
implement her decision.)  Further, she rejected the PM's 
allegation that the takeover violated the Sri Lankan 
Constitution, asserting that she had acted in full 
conformity with the law.  In terms of next moves in the 
tense situation, the PM is reportedly drafting a 
response to Kumaratunga's latest missive.  There are 
also reports that President Kumaratunga, in a bid to 
show she has control of the agency, is planning to call 
for an emergency meeting of the directors of the 
lotteries board soon. 
 
6. (C) COMMENT:  Until the snarls over the peace process 
and cohabitation are cleared up, the GSL will continue 
to be in a serious bind.  The LTTE is clearly not in the 
mood to make things easy for it in terms of the peace 
track.  In the meantime, the president is causing the 
GSL serious problems with respect to politics in the 
south.  Even when things were going more smoothly, the 
GSL was overloaded enough.  The weight of these added 
problems makes the overall challenge for the GSL that 
much larger.  END COMMENT. 
 
7. (U) Minimize considered. 
 
WILLS