Colombo: In a firm message to Sri Lankan government, President Chandrika Kumaratunga on October 29 said that the proposed joint mechanism with Liberation Tigers of Tami Elam (LTTE) for overseeing development work in the country's North and East should be rooted in law and conform to norms of Constitutional governance.

On the eve of the second round of peace talks with the LTTE, Kumaratunga's spokesman Harim Peiris briefed reporters on her views and said that the President also wanted the government to make a beginning towards a final settlement by taking up core political issues in negotiations with the LTTE.

He said that the President did not want to give her views in detail on the issues to be taken up at the second round due to begin in Thailand on October 31, but believed that the idea of a Joint Task Force (JTF) should have a sound legal structure.

"The JTF should be rooted in the law. Constitutional principles of governance applicable to the rest of the country should be part of this," he said in a reference to the task force that would be created soon.

The four-day second round is expected to work out the modalities for the JTF, a body representing the government and the rebels and mandated to supervise rehabilitation and resettlement of displaced people and monitor the flow of external aid to identified development projects.

The parties have decided to ensure that the people of the North East, long used to living under conditions of war, got the dividends of the current atmosphere of peace. They want to take up rehabilitation work before moving towards talks on underlying political problems.

The President's known view is that she does not want discussions on core political issues to be delayed indefinitely. She fears that transitional mechanisms like the JTF could be used to evade political accountability and a Human Rights framework.

However, her spokesman took care not to sound a discordant note even before the modalities for the JTF were discussed. "The President does not want to say anything that will jeopardize the talks. We will give a detailed response subsequent to the talks," Peiris said.

However, she did feel that the time was ripe for "core issues" to be taken up, as the fighting had stopped and a mechanism for relief and reconstruction was being established, her spokesman said.

The government and the LTTE could make a beginning on discussing the country's future political arrangement even while humanitarian problems were addressed.

"These are not mutually exclusive," he said. Some progress on the political front could add to the confidence of prospective donors, he said. Donors required maximum conditions of normalcy before they made firm commitments, he added.

Sri Lanka is looking for international aid on a massive scale to undertake development work in the north and east. The JTF is also expected to be vested with the responsibility of receiving external funds and handle disbursements to implementation agencies.

PTI