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Lanka offers new proposals to end peace deadlock

AFP, Colombo
Sri Lanka's government yesterday said it was ready with new proposals to resume peace talks with Tamil Tiger guerrillas and hammer out a political solution to the island's bloody ethnic conflict.
Government spokesman Mangala Samaraweera said a set of fresh proposals had already been finalised to restart negotiations, which remain on hold since the Tigers walked out of talks in April 2003.
The rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have said they will resume discussions only on the basis of an "Interim Self Governing Authority," a proposal for self-rule in embattled northern and eastern regions.
"Counter proposals are ready and have been finalised," Samaraweera told reporters. "The proposals will be given to the Tigers when they are ready to look at them."
He said the cabinet was "baffled" at the Tiger's reluctance to re-open talks with the new government which came to power in April after the president sacked the previous administration for allegedly conceding too much to the rebels.
Samaraweera said the new government had maintained the Norwegian-brokered ceasefire that has been in place since February, but accused the Tigers of systematically eliminating political opponents.
"We have also conceded to a lot of LTTE ideas in the past six months," he said. "But the assassination of political opponents by the LTTE or anyone else is not helpful for the process."
He declined to unveil the government's new proposals, but President Chandrika Kumaratunga earlier this month invited the rebels to discuss setting up a federal state in exchange for ethnic peace.
Her government's main coalition partner, the Marxist JVP, opposes any territorial concessions to the Tigers and opposition parties have
demanded a united front to push ahead with the peace process.
There has been no formal response to Kumaratunga's offer, but the Tigers described as a "waste of time" a recent government move to broaden political consultations on the peace process through a "peace advisory council."
The Swiss Foreign Minister warned here Tuesday that Sri Lanka's fragile ceasefire was in danger of breaking down and asked the two sides to return to peace negotiations at the earliest.
Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey said a "lack of confidence" was holding up a resumption of talks. She said it was made clear to the Tigers that all political killings must stop and that they must resume peace negotiations at the earliest.
The Sri Lankan government has accused the Tigers of murdering more than 250 rivals since the ceasefire.