The Sunday Times News Britain to send special peace envoy

Britain is expected to appoint a special ‘envoy’ shortly to engage in the Sri Lanka peace process as it seeks to play a bigger role in the search for a political solution, highly placed political sources said.

Prime Minister Tony Blair is expected to make this appointment before long following talks he had last month with President Mahinda Rajapaksa at his country residence “Chequers”, the sources said.

Meanwhile the opposition Conservative Party under the new leadership of David Cameron is preparing a position paper on Sri Lanka, especially acts of violence and terrorism by the LTTE, another political source said.

The Conservative Party which is now several points ahead in opinion polls is expected to take a tough stand on terrorism, the funding of organisations declared terrorist under British law and money laundering.

In the more-than-hour-long discussions between President Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Blair, mistakenly interpreted by some news media as sudden and hurriedly-arranged, the stalled peace process and issues arising out of the long-drawn out negotiations had figured prominently.

Prime Minister Blair, who has played a lead role in the “war against terror”, is said to have considered positively a suggestion by President Rajapaksa that Britain should play a

role in finding a solution to the Sri Lankan conflict as it is equipped to do so.Given its historical links with Sri Lanka and having largely settled its own terrorist problem in Northern Ireland, it was felt that the vast majority of Sri Lankans would like to see Britain with its vast experience in the field, more involved in the peace process.

While envisioning a role for itself, London did not wish current facilitator Norway to think that Britain was trying to “muscle in and knock Oslo off its perch”, the sources said.

To avoid any misunderstanding, the British foreign office is said to have informed beforehand Norway’s special envoy Jon Hanssen-Bauer about the meeting between Mr. Blair and Mr. Rajapaksa and the possibility of Britain being more involved in the peace process.

This happened when Mr. Hanssen-Bauer was transiting London on his way back from Colombo in August.

During the discussions with the Sri Lanka President, Mr Blair had made the point that in the negotiations on Northern Ireland, Sinn Fein, the political wing of the IRA, was never accorded equal status with the British Government, highly placed sources said.

In Sri Lanka’s case Norway has taken up the position, which it did even a few days ago, that the Sri Lanka Government and the LTTE should have parity of status.

Mr. Blair is also believed to have taken serious note of reports of fund-raising for the LTTE by various front organisations. His attention had also been drawn to recent FBI arrests of US and Canadian citizens for alleged arms buying missions and attempted bribery of American officials in which a London-based Tamil doctor was also detained and his house subsequently searched.

Political analysts here say that the hurried effort by Norway to schedule peace talks without prior consultation with the Sri Lanka Government was not only a pre-emptive move to force the Rajapaksa administration into talking with the Tigers but also compel the two parties into negotiations before Britain a key member of the European Union, became involved.

Political insiders say that unlike in the days of former British High Commissioners Linda Duffield and Stephen Evans whose pro-LTTE sympathies largely influenced British policy on Sri Lanka, the tide has now turned with the Blair government much more conscious of the dangers of terrorism and the presence of supporters of banned organisations living in the country.

With this change in thinking in British political circles, Oslo is worried it would not be able to have its way over Sri Lanka policy even though it has the support of the EU Commissioner for External Relations Benita Ferraro-Waldner whose opposition to the EU ban on the LTTE has seriously dented her reputation among European foreign policy analysts and terrorism experts, political sources here said.