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Putting the peace talks with Sri Lanka on a fast track, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam said on Wednesday that it had dropped its demand for a separate state.
Anton Balasingham, the chief negotiator of the LTTE, which was holding peace with a Sri Lankan delegation at the Sattahip naval base, about 30 km away from Pattaya, Thailand, said, "We operate with the concept of a homeland and self-determination. Homeland does not mean a separate state, it means an area where Tamils and Muslims live."
Addressing a joint press conference at the Ambassador Hotel in Pattaya immediately after the talks, he said, "There is no question of disarming at this early state of discussions."
Sri Lankan minister and chief negotiator G L Peiris and the Deputy Foreign Minister of Norway, Vidar Helgesen, also attended the press conference.
Norway was instrumental in bringing the two sides on the negotiating table.
The negotiators did not take up any of the core controversial ethnic issues at the heart of the conflict fearing that it could possibly wreck the talks.
Issues like movement of internally displaced people and rehabilitation were touched upon during the 12-hour talks split into four sessions over three days.
The second day saw the two sides meeting for six hours, besides holding informal talks.
Balasingham's demand for "self determination" prompted Peiris to say, "We know a separate state is not what their aspirations are about and the government is pleased about it. These aspirations could be fulfilled in one country if we go about it in a proper way."
Besides the London-based Balasingham, the other members of the LTTE delegation included Australia-based Jey Maheswaran, the outfit's rehabilitation expert and US-based Rudra Kumar, the Tigers' legal expert.
Balasingham later said that if the Sri Lankan government refused to grant the Tamil's regional autonomy "and the Tamil's were subjected to suppression, then we will opt for statehood or political independence".
He clarified that autonomy could mean federal autonomy, confederal autonomy or regional autonomy. "We must work out core issues and find out what sort of model is suitable for Tamils and Sinhalese," he said.
India did not directly participate in the talks. The parties to the talks, however, profusely praised it.
"India is fully backing the peace process between LTTE and the Sri Lankan government. I think when an overall solution is reached and the affected communities are satisfied with the political system, when their rights are recognised, the Indian government will be the first to welcome it," Balasingham said.
Peiris also said that India was behind the peace process and did not want to see militarisation of Sri Lanka. Norway said nothing could have been achieved without India's support.
The two sides had decided on the dates for the next three rounds of talks to be held at in Thailand. The second round of talks would be from October 31 to November 3. The third round would be between December 2 and 5 and the fourth between January 6 and 9.
The members spoke of developing "very close" ties during the three days of formal parleys and informal talks held from September 16 to 18.
"We even exchanged phone numbers, in case we wanted to discuss something," Maheswaran quipped.
The other results of the talks were the agreement to set up a joint committee to deal with issues relating to High Security Zones to enable the return of larger numbers of displaced persons to their areas of origin and facilitating the restoration of normalcy.
The joint committee will consist of senior representatives of both sides, including military personnel, Helgesen said.
The parties also discussed the urgent need to address the difficult humanitarian situation in the north and east of Sri Lanka. They agreed to set up a joint task force for humanitarian and reconstruction activities.
"The joint task force will comprise a partnership between the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE and will have responsibility for the identification, financing and monitoring of urgent humanitarian and reconstruction activities in the north and east," Helgesen said.
The task force will operate with the participation of Muslims and its work will benefit all ethnic communities of the north and east.
The two sides also made a joint appeal for international aid to repair the war-ravaged north and east. Helgesen noted that the two sides "can't act rapidly unless donor's act rapidly."
Both Peiris and Balasingham said the seven-month ceasefire between Sri Lanka and LTTE was holding up.
"Aid is required to keep the peace process moving. We can persuade donors that this is not one of those cases where we need peace to come full in a formal sense, but circumstances on the ground are conducive to conducting modest development programmes," Peiris said.
More than 60,000 people have been killed and 1.6 million since the start of the conflict two decades ago.
Sri Lanka has attributed the success of the peace talks to a combination of factors. "A change in the leadership in Colombo which is keen on peace, exhaustion in the country, war fatigue, disillusionment with the military solution are some of the factors for the success," Peiris said.
The four negotiations in the past -- the last one being in 1994-95 -- had resulted in failure.
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