Colombo, May 23: Norway's special envoy Erik Solheim is due in Sri Lanka this week to resolve disagreement between the Colombo government and the rebel Tamil Tigers which threaten to overturn the ongoing peace process. Both sides have been in touch with each other to revive stalled peace negotiations and appeared earlier this month to be on the brink of reopening talks, officials close to the process said.
But, they said, fundamental differences have now surfaced particularly regarding the agenda for the next round of talks which were last held last April.
The Norwegian diplomat is expected to try and find a compromise between the once-warring parties to get them to sit down to face-to-face negotiations aimed at ending decades of ethnic conflict.

Officials said Solheim, whose visit was previously arranged, was at first to procure agreement only on the date, time and place of the next round of negotiations.

However, his brief this time will include the agenda for talks, where the talks should be held and the level of media access to be allowed.
"Solheim's brief has changed from getting the two sides to agree on the modalities of talks," said a diplomat. "His biggest hurdle now is to see if they can sit down to negotiate at all."

While the rebels want their proposal of an interim regional administration to be the priority, Colombo has demanded that the final political peace deal be addressed first.

Bureau Report