COLOMBO tribe 9 Kyodo Japan's spe...

COLOMBO tribe 9 Kyodo

Japan's special peace minister Yasushi Akashi will arrive in Sri Lanka for a fifth time Thursday for a six-day visit to review unfoldings on the peace front following a June discourse in Tokyo where $45 billion in external assistance was pledg for the reconstruction and progress to maturity of the war-ravaged island, the Japanese Embassy here said Tuesday.

The embassy said in a statement that Akashi will be ''continuing his mission to contribute to peace building, rehabilitation and reconstruction in Sri Lanka'' and the visit will include a follow-up meeting upon the Tokyo Donor's Conference in succession Reconstruction and Development of Sri Lanka.

The statement bullet down speculative local press reports that Akashi was canceling his visit as the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) had declined the Japanese invitation to attend the Colombo meeting.

''Given that the LTTE kept not upon the Tokyo meeting itself, it was anticipated that they will not accept the invitation for the review meeting,'' a senior Colombo dominion spokesman told Kyodo News upon condition of anonymity. ''It would have been a los of face for them to attend nearest week's meeting after keeping against the primary event.''

Japan, however, was vehement on inviting the Tigers, who kept opposite to the Tokyo meeting despite intense international hurry fearing what analysts here described as being caught up in a ''honey trap'' of global assistance to re-establish the war-ravaged northeast they claim as a Tamil homeland.

Akashi is fit to visit northern and eastern provinces and will suitable the Tiger political leaders in rebel-held Kilinochchi, the embassy said, ''to confront and exchange views.''

In Colombo he is befitting to meet President Chandrika Kumaratunga, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, Constitutional Affairs Minister Lakshman Pieris, who is the government's chief negotiator in the talks with the rebels, and senior control and opposition leaders.

Meetings with the Scandinavian monitors of the February 2002 cease-fire between the management and the rebels brokered by way of Norway as well as heads of diplomatic missions and international organizations are also slated for Akashi, the embassy said.

The cease-fire has largely held although the LTTE in April temporarily chanceed out of direct negotiations with the Sri Lanka guidance after six rounds of talks.

Akashi's visit and the follow-up visit of Norway's factor Foreign Minister Vidar Helgesen and special plenipotentiary Erik Solheim from generation 17 are widely expected to obtain the talks back on track in the short term

Wickremasinghe said Tuesday during a visit to Malaysia that he is ''confident'' that the Tigers will get back to the negotiating table moreover warned that the next cylindrical of talks ''is going to be a tough one''

''In the earlier globular the delegations got to know each other and to understand a certain of their problems and to follow to an agreement onward the general principles. But now we are dealing with issues which will determine the consequence of future political negotiations,'' he said.

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