02-13-2006, 01:25 AM
'Foreign advisors may jeopardise Lanka's negotiating position'
Colombo: US experts hired by Sri Lanka to advise its peace delegates are "too liberal" and "too pro-Tigers" that it could jeopardise the island nation's negotiating position during upcoming talks with the rebels, a state-run newspaper said today.
"Two Harvard specialists who were coaching the Sri Lankan peace team could place the country's position in danger of falling into the hands of Tigers even before talks open on February 22," the Sunday Observer reported.
The government had brought down experts from the Harvard Negotiation Project, a US think tank, to help the government negotiating team to prepare for face-to-face talks with Tiger rebels.
"We run the risk of the Tigers knowing what the Sri Lankan strategy is even before we reach the negotiating table," the newspaper quoted a source close to the peace process as saying.
The government-controlled newspaper said two foreign specialists it had brought down to advise the negotiating team were "thought of being too liberal and possibly too pro-Tiger in their views." "One source close to the process said that the danger is that some of these conflict resolution specialists though they may be from Harvard and other institutions of repute, may wittingly or otherwise place Sri Lankan strategy in channels that could be available to the Tigers," the report said.
There was no immediate reaction from the government's peace secretariat or the US experts.
Sri Lanka has named a three-member team of ministers and invited the island's second largest minority, Muslims, to nominate a fourth negotiator to join the government team.
The newspaper report came as the defence ministry accused the Tigers of gun running and blasting an explosives-laden craft last evening when intercepted by the navy.
http://www.newkerala.com/news2.php?action=...ullnews&id=8387
Colombo: US experts hired by Sri Lanka to advise its peace delegates are "too liberal" and "too pro-Tigers" that it could jeopardise the island nation's negotiating position during upcoming talks with the rebels, a state-run newspaper said today.
"Two Harvard specialists who were coaching the Sri Lankan peace team could place the country's position in danger of falling into the hands of Tigers even before talks open on February 22," the Sunday Observer reported.
The government had brought down experts from the Harvard Negotiation Project, a US think tank, to help the government negotiating team to prepare for face-to-face talks with Tiger rebels.
"We run the risk of the Tigers knowing what the Sri Lankan strategy is even before we reach the negotiating table," the newspaper quoted a source close to the peace process as saying.
The government-controlled newspaper said two foreign specialists it had brought down to advise the negotiating team were "thought of being too liberal and possibly too pro-Tiger in their views." "One source close to the process said that the danger is that some of these conflict resolution specialists though they may be from Harvard and other institutions of repute, may wittingly or otherwise place Sri Lankan strategy in channels that could be available to the Tigers," the report said.
There was no immediate reaction from the government's peace secretariat or the US experts.
Sri Lanka has named a three-member team of ministers and invited the island's second largest minority, Muslims, to nominate a fourth negotiator to join the government team.
The newspaper report came as the defence ministry accused the Tigers of gun running and blasting an explosives-laden craft last evening when intercepted by the navy.
http://www.newkerala.com/news2.php?action=...ullnews&id=8387
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