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Japan envoy in Sri Lanka to push for peace
COLOMBO, May 8 (Reuters) - A top Japanese envoy met Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse on Monday to try to salvage the island's battered peace process, as Tamil Tiger rebels accused the army of killing civilians.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam Web site on Monday accused the army of killing eight Hindu temple workers near the northern ethnic Tamil town of Jaffna, while the military said there had been several rebel attacks overnight.
A military spokesman said the army had nothing to do with any temple killings, and that reports that eight bodies had been found could not be substantiated. Nordic monitors observing a fragile 2002 ceasefire said they had also not seen any bodies.
The army said a curfew had been ordered in Jaffna and crossing points to rebel territory closed for unspecified "security reasons", but that it was only a temporary measure. One military source said it was to stop Tiger-backed demonstrations due to take place in northern government territory.
The rebels said a seven-month-old baby had died after the blockade stopped him being taken to a government hospital, but there was no way to verify the statement.
Diplomats say Japanese envoy Yasushi Akashi will deliver a strong message to both sides and warn the Tigers, when he visits them on Tuesday, that further attacks and failure to attend talks might lead to a global crackdown on their fundraising and see them listed as terrorists by the European Union.
INVESTORS JITTERY
A surge in suspected rebel attacks, ethnic riots, land and sea clashes, government air strikes and unsolved killings of civilians have killed more than 200 people in the past month.
Analysts say neither side wants to be blamed for a return to civil war, and both are eager to attract international sympathy. More than 64,000 people died in the two-decade civil war halted by the 2002 truce.
A suspected Tiger grenade attack overnight in the eastern town of Batticaloa wounded seven policemen and a civilian, the army said, while six soldiers escaped unharmed after an ambush near the north-west coast.
Sri Lanka was quiet on Monday, but the stock market fell more than one percent. Some investors who had held on to shares during recent violence in the hope peace talks would resume in Switzerland, sold fearing Akashi would be unable to win a breakthrough.
Tiger rebels said they came under attack again overnight from fighters loyal to renegade eastern rebel commander Karuna Amman, and their north-eastern political leader told pro-rebel Web site Tamilnet they would retaliate against army camps if hit again.
The army denies backing Karuna.
"The government's refusal to rein in armed groups as pledged at (talks in) Geneva has been the primary cause of intensified violence and the stalemate in the peace talks," London-based chief rebel negotiator Anton Balasingham told Reuters in an e-mail interview.
An eastern Tiger political wing leader warned Nordic truce monitors the rebels would be forced to attack an army camp in the north-east unless attacks on their fighters stopped, Tamilnet reported.
With some of Rajapakse's hardline allies accusing mediator Norway of being too soft on the Tigers, Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera visited India on Monday for high-level talks.
Analysts say Sri Lanka wants diplomatic support and weaponry.
India's Foreign Ministry said Samaraweera had told Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that Sri Lanka's government was determined to maintain the ceasefire and hold talks. (Additional reporting by Joe Ariyaratnam in JAFFNA and Kamil Zaheer in NEW DELHI)
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/COL169573.htm
COLOMBO, May 8 (Reuters) - A top Japanese envoy met Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse on Monday to try to salvage the island's battered peace process, as Tamil Tiger rebels accused the army of killing civilians.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam Web site on Monday accused the army of killing eight Hindu temple workers near the northern ethnic Tamil town of Jaffna, while the military said there had been several rebel attacks overnight.
A military spokesman said the army had nothing to do with any temple killings, and that reports that eight bodies had been found could not be substantiated. Nordic monitors observing a fragile 2002 ceasefire said they had also not seen any bodies.
The army said a curfew had been ordered in Jaffna and crossing points to rebel territory closed for unspecified "security reasons", but that it was only a temporary measure. One military source said it was to stop Tiger-backed demonstrations due to take place in northern government territory.
The rebels said a seven-month-old baby had died after the blockade stopped him being taken to a government hospital, but there was no way to verify the statement.
Diplomats say Japanese envoy Yasushi Akashi will deliver a strong message to both sides and warn the Tigers, when he visits them on Tuesday, that further attacks and failure to attend talks might lead to a global crackdown on their fundraising and see them listed as terrorists by the European Union.
INVESTORS JITTERY
A surge in suspected rebel attacks, ethnic riots, land and sea clashes, government air strikes and unsolved killings of civilians have killed more than 200 people in the past month.
Analysts say neither side wants to be blamed for a return to civil war, and both are eager to attract international sympathy. More than 64,000 people died in the two-decade civil war halted by the 2002 truce.
A suspected Tiger grenade attack overnight in the eastern town of Batticaloa wounded seven policemen and a civilian, the army said, while six soldiers escaped unharmed after an ambush near the north-west coast.
Sri Lanka was quiet on Monday, but the stock market fell more than one percent. Some investors who had held on to shares during recent violence in the hope peace talks would resume in Switzerland, sold fearing Akashi would be unable to win a breakthrough.
Tiger rebels said they came under attack again overnight from fighters loyal to renegade eastern rebel commander Karuna Amman, and their north-eastern political leader told pro-rebel Web site Tamilnet they would retaliate against army camps if hit again.
The army denies backing Karuna.
"The government's refusal to rein in armed groups as pledged at (talks in) Geneva has been the primary cause of intensified violence and the stalemate in the peace talks," London-based chief rebel negotiator Anton Balasingham told Reuters in an e-mail interview.
An eastern Tiger political wing leader warned Nordic truce monitors the rebels would be forced to attack an army camp in the north-east unless attacks on their fighters stopped, Tamilnet reported.
With some of Rajapakse's hardline allies accusing mediator Norway of being too soft on the Tigers, Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera visited India on Monday for high-level talks.
Analysts say Sri Lanka wants diplomatic support and weaponry.
India's Foreign Ministry said Samaraweera had told Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that Sri Lanka's government was determined to maintain the ceasefire and hold talks. (Additional reporting by Joe Ariyaratnam in JAFFNA and Kamil Zaheer in NEW DELHI)
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/COL169573.htm
