NEW DELHI, June 9 (UPI) -- Talks between the Sri Lankan government and Tamil rebels on the state of a peace monitoring mission have broken down as rebels refuse to come to the table.
"The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (have) refused to meet with the government delegation after arriving at the conference venue in Norway," the Lankan government said Thursday, according the Hindu newspaper.
The Norway-sponsored talks, to be held on Thursday and Friday in Oslo, were scheduled to discuss operational modalities and functional attributes of the ongoing Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission.
The LTTE's main objection to the talks was the role of five European Union countries in the peace monitoring mission.
"The LTTE is not willing to hold direct talks with the government, which did not have a political representation," the rebels said in a statment.
"The government delegation was also informed that the LTTE had indicated that the presence of nationals from Sweden, Denmark and Finland as members of the SLMM was objectionable, as these are nationals from EU members countries," the Sri Lankan government said.
Following a surge of violence last month the EU listed the LTTE as a banned terrorist organization, freezing the group's assets and ordering a ban on its fund-raising activities across Europe.
The EU said it will still maintain its dialogue with the LTTE so far as contacts may help to bring about a return to negotiations and an end to violence.
"We are in the deepest crisis in the peace process," Norway's top mediator, Erik Solheim said.
