SATTAHIP, Thailand, Sept. 16 (UPI) -- The much-awaited peace talks between the Sri Lankan government and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam began Monday at the Sattahip naval base in southeastern Thailand.
Facilitated by the Norwegian government, the first round of talks to find a negotiated political solution to the protracted ethnic conflict is to continue until Wednesday.
Addressing a gathering of the international community and some 200 media persons, Professor G. L. Pieris, head of the government delegation and Sri Lanka's minister for constitutional reforms, said he was hopeful the negotiations would succeed.
"We declare with all the vehemence at our command that the negotiations which we are about to commence are not in our view by any means a zero-sum exercise,'' Pieris said. ''We acknowledge that we both have a problem ... which is in our mutual interest to resolve together.''
The search for elusive peace has continued for the past two decades. The Thailand talks are the fourth engagement between the government and the LTTE.
The Tamil Tiger guerrillas launched an armed struggle in 1983 after a million people of the minority Tamil community were killed in ethnic riots. The group demands a separate homeland for the Tamils carved out of north and east Sri Lanka.
Since the beginning of the conflict some 70,000 people have lost their lives and many more have been maimed and disabled.
While the guerrillas attacked military and civilian targets in southern Sri Lanka, dominated by the majority Sinhala community, and killed politicians and military commanders, government troops have shelled and destroyed the northern and eastern parts of the country.
The LTTE has come to the negotiating table with reconstruction and rehabilitation high on its agenda.
The LTTE's head of negotiating delegation and its theoretician, Anton Balasingham, said that the north and east of the island nation need immediate attention.
''Over and above the intricate question of conflict resolution and power sharing, the peace expect a peace dividend; they require immediate relief to resolve their urgent, existential problems,'' Balasingham said. ''The peace process cannot be undertaken without taking parallel steps towards the economic recovery of the suffering population.''
The composition of LTTE's delegation to the first round of talks is a clear indication that the guerrillas intend to discuss the reconstruction before talking politics. They have nominated LTTE's London-based legal adviser V. Rudrakumar, and the outfit's Australia-based development specialist Jay Maheswara, as negotiators.
The chief negotiator of the LTTE also made it clear to the government delegation at the inaugural ceremony that the guerrillas would be interested in taking over the administration of the north and east.
Pointing out that the guerrillas have set up a parallel government in the Tamil dominated regions, Balasingham said ''it is crucial that the LTTE should play a leading role in administration as well as the economic development of the north and east.''
Both sides agreed at the start that there could be major hiccups and derailment of the negotiations, but expressed their firm resolve to continue with the peace process.
