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The annual conference on Sri Lanka - Mathivathanan - 09-09-2003
[size=14]Sri Lankan government, Tamil rebels address common forum for the first time
Associated Press, Tue September 9, 2003 00:41 EDT . - - COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - (AP) A senior Sri Lanka - government official and a key Tamil Tiger representative were scheduled to address the same international forum about power sharing as a possible solution to the country's rocky peace process, a government official said Tuesday. The annual conference on Sri Lanka - was taking place later Tuesday in Bern, Switzerland, a senior government official said. Bernard Goonetilleke, a part of the government's four-member negotiating team and S. Pulidevan, secretary general of the rebels' peace body, were to address the conference, the official said on condition of anonymity.
Goonetilleke has been an integral part of efforts to strike a peace deal with the Tigers and end the island's 19-year civil war that has killed nearly 65,000 people. The fighting stopped after a Norwegian-brokered cease-fire was signed in February 2002.
Pulidevan, though not a negotiator, has been playing an increasingly important role in the peace process and was part of a high-level rebel team that drafted a power-sharing proposal during a meeting in Paris earlier this month.
Goonetilleke and Pulidevan were expected to make separate presentations at the one-day conference on ``Power sharing and decentralization: Federalism as a possible solution for Sri Lanka - ,'' the official said.
After a series of peace talks, the rebels agreed to give up their demand for a separate homeland for the island's minority Tamils and settle for autonomy under a federal Colombo administration run largely by the majority Sinhalese.
The Tigers pulled out of talks in April and have refused to resume negotiations until the government gives them an interim administration in the shape and authority they demand.
The rebel proposal is to be handed to the government later this month.
http://www.theacademic.org/