Opening of Jaffna-Kandy highway depends on LTTE behaviour: Lanka

Colombo, Oct 31 (UNI) Sri Lanka today categorically said the opening of the controversial main highway, which links the Northern Jaffna peninsula to the rest of the country, would depend on how the Tamil Tiger rebels behave during the next couple of weeks.

''We have no intention of closing the A9 Jaffna-Kandy route. It is only a temporary closure. When things return to normalcy and if there are no violent activities, if the LTTE behaves well, then we should be in a position to open the highway,'' government's chief negotiator, Minister Nimal Sripala de Silva, who returned home from the abortive Geneva talks last evening told reporters here today.

''We will wait and see the situation (at the entry/exit point of Muhamalai on the A9 highway) for a week or two. We cannot completely depend on the verbal assurances of the LTTE,'' he said.

The two-day direct talks between the government and the LTTE in Geneva during the weekend ended up in a virtual failure with the parties failing to agree even on dates for the next round of talks.

At the end of the abortive talks, Norway's top peace envoy and Minister of International Development, Eric Solheim said although the discussions between parties focused on the need to address urgent humanitarian situation, mainly in the Northern Jaffna peninsula, ''no agreement was reached between the parties on how to address the humanitarian crisis''.

The LTTE insisted the A9 main highway, which was closed in early August following intense battle between the two sides, to be opened in order to avoid the looming humanitarian crisis and to transport the essential supply to over 500,000 Tamil people in the Jaffna peninsula.

The LTTE said that they were agreeable for the talks, but wanted the A9 highway to be opened prior to the next round of talks with the government of Sri Lanka.

The Government refused to open the highway ''at this point'', taking the national security into account.

''We cannot compromise the national security for the just sake of getting a date for a discussion with the LTTE. Because we value the national security,'' Minister de Silva said, charging that the LTTE still continued to attack the Forward Defence Lines of the military at the entry/exit point of Muhamalai on the A9 highway.

He, however, said that being a responsible government it would send the food and essential supply to the people in Jaffna via sea, but wanted a ''security assurance'' from the LTTE that they would not attack any of these ships.

''Despite the LTTE threats, the government will take all necessary steps within its reach to transport necessary commodities to the people in the North and the East at the earliest,'' Minister de Silva said.

The Minister, however, said that ''there are hopes'' from the over all outcome of the talks as the LTTE has said ''for the first time'' that they were ready to study in detail the political framework that could emerge from the ongoing Southern consensus. UNI XC SHB ND1728