01-07-2006, 11:45 AM
<b>Top U.S. State Department official to visit Sri Lanka to spur peace talks</b>
By FOSTER KLUG
AP
WASHINGTON (AP) - A senior State Department official is planning to visit Sri Lanka in an attempt to spur peace talks languishing as increased violence threatens a fragile cease-fire.
Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns intends to travel to Sri Lanka to encourage negotiations between the government and the Tamil Tiger rebels, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Friday. No date for the trip has been announced.
In the latest incident, Sri Lanka's navy reported early Saturday that suspected Tamil Tiger rebels attacked two navy vessels off the northwestern coast, killing at least 15 sailors and leaving three missing.
On Thursday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with Sri Lanka's new foreign minister, Mangala Samaraweera. It was the first U.S. trip by a top member of Sri Lanka's new government since November elections, and analysts and lawmakers had hoped it would help revive peace talks stalled since 2003.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Samaraweera said he told Rice that his country urgently needed international help to restart negotiations and to avoid a resurgence of civil war.
"Our democracy is a democracy under siege today, due to the intransigence of the LTTE," he said, referring to a recent spike in violence blamed on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rebels.
"Despite all these provocations," Samaraweera said, new President Mahinda Rajapakse, who campaigned on a promise to take a tough line in negotiations with the rebels, is "still willing to walk that extra mile for peace."
During the private meeting with the minister, McCormack said, Rice lauded the government for its restraint.
"The president has shown that his threshold of patience is extremely high," Samaraweera said, noting that Rajapakse has extended six invitations to rebel leaders to resume talks. So far, the minister said, those efforts have been ignored, and there are no current prospects for future negotiations.
"We are still willing to be patient, if we can get the LTTE back to the negotiating table," he said. "And for that we need the support of the international community."
A 2002 cease-fire halted two decades of a civil war that has killed more than 65,000 people since 1983. But last month 45 soldiers were killed and 71 wounded in ambushes blamed on the rebels; government troops killed seven suspected rebels.
The two sides have also traded accusations about the slaying of a pro-rebel lawmaker at Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve. And in August, former Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar was assassinated by suspected Tiger gunmen.
The rebels want a separate state for the country's 3.2 million Tamils, claiming discrimination by the majority Sinhalese, who number about 14 million.
http://news.aol.com/topnews/articles?id=n2...106192809990006
By FOSTER KLUG
AP
WASHINGTON (AP) - A senior State Department official is planning to visit Sri Lanka in an attempt to spur peace talks languishing as increased violence threatens a fragile cease-fire.
Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns intends to travel to Sri Lanka to encourage negotiations between the government and the Tamil Tiger rebels, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Friday. No date for the trip has been announced.
In the latest incident, Sri Lanka's navy reported early Saturday that suspected Tamil Tiger rebels attacked two navy vessels off the northwestern coast, killing at least 15 sailors and leaving three missing.
On Thursday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with Sri Lanka's new foreign minister, Mangala Samaraweera. It was the first U.S. trip by a top member of Sri Lanka's new government since November elections, and analysts and lawmakers had hoped it would help revive peace talks stalled since 2003.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Samaraweera said he told Rice that his country urgently needed international help to restart negotiations and to avoid a resurgence of civil war.
"Our democracy is a democracy under siege today, due to the intransigence of the LTTE," he said, referring to a recent spike in violence blamed on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rebels.
"Despite all these provocations," Samaraweera said, new President Mahinda Rajapakse, who campaigned on a promise to take a tough line in negotiations with the rebels, is "still willing to walk that extra mile for peace."
During the private meeting with the minister, McCormack said, Rice lauded the government for its restraint.
"The president has shown that his threshold of patience is extremely high," Samaraweera said, noting that Rajapakse has extended six invitations to rebel leaders to resume talks. So far, the minister said, those efforts have been ignored, and there are no current prospects for future negotiations.
"We are still willing to be patient, if we can get the LTTE back to the negotiating table," he said. "And for that we need the support of the international community."
A 2002 cease-fire halted two decades of a civil war that has killed more than 65,000 people since 1983. But last month 45 soldiers were killed and 71 wounded in ambushes blamed on the rebels; government troops killed seven suspected rebels.
The two sides have also traded accusations about the slaying of a pro-rebel lawmaker at Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve. And in August, former Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar was assassinated by suspected Tiger gunmen.
The rebels want a separate state for the country's 3.2 million Tamils, claiming discrimination by the majority Sinhalese, who number about 14 million.
http://news.aol.com/topnews/articles?id=n2...106192809990006
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