<b>Ranil doubts peace talks commencing even after troop withdrawal</b>

The Island

WASHINGTON, July 23 (Reuters) — The Sri Lankan government said on Tuesday it was hopeful it could meet the Aug. 2 target date for fulfilling a ceasefire commitment to withdraw its forces from temples and schools in Tamil parts of the country.

But Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told a Washington think tank he could not be sure peace talks with the Tamil Tigers would start next month, after the withdrawal.

"We said we had no problems even if it is in August or September or October because the process is moving forward and that’s what matters most," he told the Woodrow Wilson Centre on the first day of a visit to the United States.

The withdrawal from temples and schools is one of the government’s obligations under the ceasefire agreement reached in February with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the separatist guerrillas who have been fighting for a Tamil state in Sri Lanka for 19 years in one of Asia’s longest wars.

But the government has had trouble meeting the obligation because it does not have enough alternative sites for housing the troops or money to finance the move.

Wickremesinghe, who has been the driving force behind a peace process that has given the island its best chance of ending the war, said the army and security forces had already vacated all the temples in Tamil areas and remained in only a few schools and public buildings.

"I think by August 2 we will find that no one in the Sri Lankan army wants to stay on in Jaffna (in the north). Most of them want to come home but they want to ensure there is peace and I think gradually we will be pulling back but there are a lot of problems we face," he added.

"On the ground things are working out. I am very very hopeful," the Prime Minister added.

On Tuesday the Tamil Tigers called on the government to honour the ceasefire pact but stopped short of saying any delays would stand in the way of the peace talks.

"We don’t want to get into a situation of a quagmire by being technical about 160 days and completion 100 per cent," S. P. Thamilselvan, the leader of LTTE political wing, told Reuters in Kilinochchi. The 160 days expire on Aug. 2.

Wickremesinghe’s meetings with U.S. officials were expected to further pressure the rebels to negotiate an end to a war that has killed 64,000 people.

Using carrot-and-stick diplomacy, Washington has supported the Norwegian-brokered ceasefire, which is designed to pave the way forthe first direct peace talks in seven years.

The prime minister, who expects to see Bush on Wednesday, said Sri Lanka supported the United States in its "war on terrorism" but said governments should look at the underlying grievances which produce it.

In Sri Lanka, he said, successive governments had alienated the minority Tamil community by affirmative action programmes in favour of the Sinhalese majority, who had in turn suffered discrimination under British colonial rule.

"The Tamils tried peaceful protests which soon degenerated into violence. With the underlying grievances being unattended, the stage was set for terrorist groups to emerge," he added.

The United States continues to list the Tamil Tigers as a "foreign terrorist organization" but Sri Lanka plans to lift a ban on the organization before the peace talks.

Courtesy - The Island