Efforts to initiate dialogue between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) will be unsuccessful unless there is normalcy in the North-East, Suresh Premachandran, the party spokesperson, told the Tamil Guardian today, ahead of a visit by the TNA to South Africa later this week.

"If there is no normalcy in the North-East area then the people will not be with us, and dialogue cannot continue without keeping the people with us," Mr. Premachandran explained.

Stressing however that this was "not a pre-condition" to the talks, Mr. Premachandran said,

"We have already spoken to the South African High Commissioner about this. I myself have personally spoken to him before Geneva on this, that we need normalcy."

"Without normalcy dialogue cannot continue," he added.

A TNA delegation, consisting of Mr. R. Sampanthan, Mr. Selvam Adaikalanathan, Mr. MA. Sumanthiran, Mr. Maavai Senathirajah and Mr. Suresh Premachandran will be visiting South Africa on April 11th for talks with the special envoy, Cyril Ramaphosa, appointed by President Zuma to oversee dialogue between the TNA and the Sri Lankan government.

"We will be going to take up the ground situation in the North-East provinces with the special envoy, the militarisation, resettlement not happening, and political prisoners matters," said Mr. Premachandran.

Asked if Mr. Sampanthan would be stopping by New Delhi ahead of the trip to South Africa, he said at present such a visit was unlikely.

"We were expecting an appointment on 7th, 8th, but at present we have not received any confirmation, so I don't think this is happening," he explained.

Last month, the Sri Lankan government visited South Africa for similar discussions.