 Good good, we can use such sentiments especially given that he is advisor to Ban Ki Moon now, while we progress towards total independence. There is no peace to be had the only salvation for the Tamil people is to win freedom with our own hands and that is what is to happen. In the meantime we must make use of every opportunity whenever it presents itself.
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There is still time for peace talks between Sri Lanka`s government and separatist Tamil Tiger rebels despite the virtual collapse of a truce, a former Norwegian peace broker said Tuesday.
``It`s not too late. They can and should and must reopen real peace negotiations,`` Jan Egeland told AFP.
But he added, ``To the best of my knowledge there is very little movement.``
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam have been fighting for an independent homeland in a 35-year ethnic conflict that has claimed more than 60,000 lives.
A 2002 truce now exists only on paper as worsening fighting since late 2005 has killed more than 5,000 people, according to government figures.
``What can be done is that the two sides say, `We want to sit down. We have now amply proven that there`s no military solution to this conflict. We spent a generation to prove that. Now it`s time to look to the future and agree on peaceful co-existence`.... That`s the only way,`` said Egeland.
As Norway`s deputy foreign minister in the early 1990s, he began work on peace efforts in Sri Lanka.
Norway remains the island`s peace broker, making a bid as recently as July to revive moribund negotiations aimed at ending the bloodshed.
Egeland said the international community must step up its pressure on the two warring sides and tell them: ``You cannot as leaders continue to let the civilian population suffer like you have in the past.``
The United Nations head of humanitarian affairs from 2003 to 2006, Egeland is the new director general of the government-linked Norwegian Foreign Policy Institute.
In March, Egeland was named special adviser on conflict prevention to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
Egeland is to assist Ban on matters relating to the prevention and resolution of conflicts and will help bolster United Nations capacity for peacemaking and good offices, a UN spokesperson said at the time.
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