Norwegian diplomats said that the LTTE was serious about beginning peace talks without any preconditions. Leftist and nationalist political parties accuse the Norwegians of favoring Tamil separatism, so it will be difficult to get peace talks going. This despite the fact that 13 years of fighting have left 63,000 dead, a million refugees within Sri Lanka and another 400,000 Tamils who have fled to India. The population of Sri Lanka is 19 million, of which 74 percent is native Sinhalese. Some 18 percent are Tamils.