Donors press Lankan parties to resume talks

Displaced Tamil people return home at a Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)-controlled area in Sampur, near Trincomalee, northeastern Sri Lanka yesterday. Showing photographs of disfigured corpses lying in rubble, a Tamil Tiger political officer said government strikes this week had killed 15 people and displaced almost 18,000. PHOTO: AFP

"We call upon both sides to put a stop to the violence. On this basis we call upon the two parties to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible," Norwegian Minister for International Development and chief mediator Erik Solheim said at a press conference held after the meeting.

Solheim said the ceasefire, signed in February 2002, was still viable.

"It is true that there has been a number of violations to the ceasefire, all of them regrettable (...) but still it is far short of full-scale war," Solheim said.

At least 100 people have been killed in the last two weeks in attacks blamed on the separatist Tamil Tigers (LTTE) and in retaliatory strikes carried out by the Sri Lankan army.

On Tuesday, a Tamil woman posing as an expectant mother gained entry to the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo's Army Hospital and blew herself up, severely wounding the army chief and killing 10 others.

The government retaliated by launching air strikes on suspected Tamil Tiger rebel positions, causing 15 casualties and displacing thousands of civilians in northeastern Sri Lanka.

"We are all deeply concerned with the recent escalation of violence. We call upon both sides to put a stop to the violence," Solheim said.

"There is no military solution to this conflict," he stressed.

In Sri Lanka, an LTTE political chief said the situation on the island was approaching all-out war.

"The situation is like a war. People are being killed by bombs and artillery fire. You can't say there's peace in Sri Lanka anymore," S. Elilan said.

Talks to consolidate the truce between Colombo and the rebels took place in Geneva in February but were suspended last week when the LTTE said it planned to pull out of the next round of negotiations, slated for the end of April.

"We urge the parties to come to Geneva, that in itself will have a stabilising effect," Solheim said.

He said he hoped this would happen "in a short period of time."

The donors agreed to meet again in Tokyo at the end of May or in June to assess progress.

Meanwhile, the United Nations yesterday urged both the Sri Lanka government and rebel Tamil Tigers to quickly end the political killings that have led to an upsurge in violence.

"The dangerous escalation of the conflict in recent days is a direct consequence of killings being allowed to run unchecked," said Philip Alston, UN's special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions.

He told the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to take urgent measures to end "political killings" and to protect human rights.