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Lankan talks to focus on HR, child soldiers

AFP, Berlin
Negotiators from the Sri Lankan government and Tamil Tiger rebels gather in Berlin on Friday for the fifth round of face-to-face talks in an increasingly delicate peace process aimed at ending three decades of war.
Negotiators and senior diplomats from Norway, which has mediated in the peace process since a truce was struck a year ago, said the talks would focus on human rights issues for the first time, as well as child soldiers and the development of war-ravaged villages so that ordinary people could enjoy the fruits of peace.
Norway's chief mediator, Erik Solheim, told AFP he expected a commitment from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels on the return of hundreds of boy soldiers to their families.
A written commitment from the Tigers to return the children would be seen as a breakthrough in the peace process, diplomats close to the talks said.
The executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Carol Bellamy, who was in Sri Lanka last week, will hold separate talks with the rebel delegation in Berlin on an "action plan" on child soldiers.
UNICEF is keen to ensure that hundreds, if not thousands, of child soldiers are demobilised and sent
back to school.
The LTTE had returned 350 child soldiers to their parents since November 2001 but UNICEF still has a list of 730 children who have reportedly been conscripted by the Tigers, Bellamy said.
Top government negotiator G. L. Peiris said human rights, child soldiers and the "nature of a political settlement" would come up for discussion during the Berlin talks.
The former head of the Londonbased human rights watchdog Amnesty International, Ian Martin, will also take part in the discussions.
But Solheim said the most important issue was the use of international financial aid, seen as crucial to the success of the peace process amid mounting criticism from elements of the Sri lankan government.
"This is the most important thing at this stage because the people in Sri Lanka must be able to see the benefits of the peace," Solheim said from Oslo.
"The benefits are there because there's been no war for the past year ... but economic progress must also be made so that people in the north and south feel a change in their lives."
Donors are scheduled to meet in Japan in June, when millions of dollars in reconstruction assistance is expected to be on the table.