Tigers insist on self-rule in talks with peace envoy

The rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) told Norway's deputy foreign minister Vidar Helgesen that any resumption of negotiations with the Colombo government must be based on their proposal for regional autonomy.

The LTTE's peace secretariat said in a statement that its political wing leader S. P. Thamilselvan also told Helgesen that they were concerned about truce violations in the island's east where a renegade led a split in March.

"Mr. Thamilselvan briefed the Norwegian team that included Mr. Hans Brattskar, the Norwegian Ambassador, that there is no change to the position of the LTTE," the statement said.

It said the Tigers wanted their October 31 proposal for an Interim Self Governing Authority taken up for discussion, a demand rejected by President Chandrika Kumaratunga.

Helgesen held talks with the Tigers in the rebel-held town of Kilinochchi, 330km north of Colombo.

"His visit is part of the shuttle diplomacy to take the peace process forward," a Norwegian diplomat said. "We do not want to raise expectations of a breakthrough."

On the eve of his visit to Sri Lanka, the LTTE killed eight men at a "safe house" of the breakaway faction of renegade regional commander V. Muralitharan, better known as Karuna.

The government in a statement Monday condemned the killings and said resort to "terrorist violence does not conform to the spirit and the letter of the ceasefire agreement and does not augur well for the smooth commencement of direct negotiations with the LTTE."

It did not say who was responsible for Sunday's massacre of the eight men.

The Tigers in a statement posted on their peace secretariat Internet website said the men who killed top aides of Karuna "surrendered" to them in the eastern district of Ampara, 350km east of Colombo.

"They reported that they were with the Karuna faction till Saturday and had strong difference of opinion all the while and at 01.00 hours today, shot dead seven of Karuna's men," the statement said.