09-10-2003, 12:52 PM
10 Sep 2003 06:02:38 GMT
Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers to boycott aid meeting
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By Scott McDonald
COLOMBO, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels will boycott a Japanese-led meeting to discuss aid and reconstruction for the island after 20 years of civil war, diplomats and government officials said on Wednesday.
The boycott is the latest in a series of hardline moves by the Tigers to show their displeasure with the peace process and with government efforts to restart talks suspended in April.
Friday's meeting in Colombo is a follow-up to a donor conference in Tokyo in June -- which the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) also boycotted -- that raised $4.5 billion in rebuilding aid, conditional on progress in efforts to end an ethnic war that has killed 64,000.
"The LTTE sent the Japanese a letter saying they are not going," said one Western diplomat.
"There will still be a meeting but without them," the diplomat said.
Japanese special envoy Yasushi Akashi is to attend the meeting, and will also meet the "political leadership" of the LTTE in rebel-held Wanni, a Japanese embassy statement said.
That means he is unlikely to meet Velupillai Prabhakaran, the LTTE's reclusive leader.
The visit comes as the rebels weigh a government proposal for a power-sharing body for the Tamil-majority north and east, aimed at bringing the LTTE back to the negotiating table.
Their counter-proposal is expected by the end of the month, but could be vastly different to the government's, which offers the Tigers wide powers over rebuilding and resettlement of displaced people, but not control over policing and security.
The rebels have run their own police in Wanni for 10 years, and Prabhakaran made a rare public appearance on Sunday to open a new police headquarters.
The Tigers have been heavily criticised for ignoring a ruling from Nordic monitors overseeing an 18-month ceasefire that a rebel camp was in violation of the truce.
The U.S. State Department and human rights groups have also accused the Tigers of using the ceasefire to murder dozens of political rivals.
The Tigers suspended the peace talks in April, saying not enough was being done to rehabilitate war-torn Tamil areas.
http://www.theacademic.org/#10631816100
Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers to boycott aid meeting
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Scott McDonald
COLOMBO, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels will boycott a Japanese-led meeting to discuss aid and reconstruction for the island after 20 years of civil war, diplomats and government officials said on Wednesday.
The boycott is the latest in a series of hardline moves by the Tigers to show their displeasure with the peace process and with government efforts to restart talks suspended in April.
Friday's meeting in Colombo is a follow-up to a donor conference in Tokyo in June -- which the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) also boycotted -- that raised $4.5 billion in rebuilding aid, conditional on progress in efforts to end an ethnic war that has killed 64,000.
"The LTTE sent the Japanese a letter saying they are not going," said one Western diplomat.
"There will still be a meeting but without them," the diplomat said.
Japanese special envoy Yasushi Akashi is to attend the meeting, and will also meet the "political leadership" of the LTTE in rebel-held Wanni, a Japanese embassy statement said.
That means he is unlikely to meet Velupillai Prabhakaran, the LTTE's reclusive leader.
The visit comes as the rebels weigh a government proposal for a power-sharing body for the Tamil-majority north and east, aimed at bringing the LTTE back to the negotiating table.
Their counter-proposal is expected by the end of the month, but could be vastly different to the government's, which offers the Tigers wide powers over rebuilding and resettlement of displaced people, but not control over policing and security.
The rebels have run their own police in Wanni for 10 years, and Prabhakaran made a rare public appearance on Sunday to open a new police headquarters.
The Tigers have been heavily criticised for ignoring a ruling from Nordic monitors overseeing an 18-month ceasefire that a rebel camp was in violation of the truce.
The U.S. State Department and human rights groups have also accused the Tigers of using the ceasefire to murder dozens of political rivals.
The Tigers suspended the peace talks in April, saying not enough was being done to rehabilitate war-torn Tamil areas.
http://www.theacademic.org/#10631816100
Truth 'll prevail