SRI LANKA: The Sri Lankan Prime Minister, Mr Ranil Wickremesinghe, has said the peace process could now advance quickly, describing remarks by the top Tamil rebel leader as a sign a political solution could be reached to end three decades of ethnic bloodshed.
The Prime Minister said Tamil Tiger leader, Mr Velupillai Prabhakaran's mention of "internal self-determination" indicated the rebels could be willing to settle for less than a separate state.
His comments came a day after Mr Prabhakaran, the chief of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), declared himself committed to Norway's peace process even though he was not ready to give up arms immediately.
Mr Prabhakaran (47) had his first press conference in 12 years at the rebel-held northern town of Kilinochchi before some 200 local and foreign journalists.
The LTTE has been spearheading a campaign for a separate Tamil state in the northeast of Sri Lanka, inhabited by about 300,000 to 500,000 Tamils.
More than 60,000 people have lost their lives since the beginning of the campaign in 1972.
Clad in a grey safari suit rather than his usual jungle camouflage uniform, the rebel leader referred most of the questions to his negotiator and the Tigers' theoretician, Mr Anton Balasingham.
Both Mr Balasingham and Mr Prabhakaran praised Mr Wickremesinghe for taking "bold" steps to promote peace in the island's war-ravaged northeast.
Mr Prabhakaran said he was hopeful Norway's attempts would succeed in bringing peace to the island. Oslo's initiative has seen the Sri Lankan army and the LTTE enter into an open-ended truce which has held since February .
Both Mr Wickremesinghe and Mr Prabhakaran agreed that there should be a greater role for neighbouring India in the ongoing peace process.But the Indian Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, yesterday rejected a request from the LTTE to lift a ban on the group and join upcoming peace talks between the group and Sri Lanka government.