Sri Lanka government, opposition to discuss common approach to solving separatist conflict

Associated Press, Thu August 31, 2006 11:32 EDT COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) _ Sri Lanka's main opposition party said Thursday it is prepared to work together with the government to try to solve the country's violent separatist conflict, but analysts warned that a combined effort won't be easy to implement.

United National Party leader Ranil Wickremesinghe said in a letter to President Mahinda Rajapakse that his party was ready to discuss ways to cooperate with the government to try to resolve the island nation's ethnic conflict which has killed over 65,000 people since 1983.

His letter was sent in response to an invitation by Rajapakse for a discussion, as government troops and separatist Tamil Tiger rebels engaged in heavy artillery and mortar battles in the volatile northeast.

``It is desirable and even necessary for a lasting solution that the main opposition parties and the government should collaborate in peace making. However the challenge will be for them to agree on a common approach,'' said Jehan Perera, an analyst at the independent National Peace Council, a Colombo-based think tank.

``At present the government is utilizing the military to soften up the LTTE. But the UNP's approach is to deal with the LTTE only through international mediated political negotiations,'' Perera said referring to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the formal name for the Tamil Tiger rebel group.

``The past experience suggests that a common approach will be difficult to obtain.''

Sri Lanka's top-ranking general on Thursday vowed that within a few days the military would take control of an eastern, Tamil rebel-held enclave where fierce fighting since the weekend has killed scores of combatants and forced hundreds from their homes.

Analysts, however, said that even if the military did seize Sampur, it would not end the state's more than two-decade conflict with ethnic Tamil separatists.

UNP spokesman Tissa Attanayake said the two parties will soon decide on a start date for the talks.

Cooperation between Sri Lanka's government and the main opposition party would be required to push through any Parliamentary proposals to devolve areas where ethnic Tamils form the majority of the population.

A two-thirds majority is required in the 225-member Parliament to implement any amendments to Sri Lanka's constitution.

However, combined efforts between the country's main parties have been rare.

In 2000, former President Chandrika Kumaratunga's attempt to implement constitutional reforms failed after a last-minute refusal by the UNP to support the move.

Hundreds of combatants and civilians have died since Aug.11 when fresh clashes broke out between government forces and Tamil Tiger rebels in Sri Lanka's north and east.

The fighting had brought a 2002 Norway-brokered cease-fire to virtual collapse.

Sri Lanka 's top general says rebel territory in east will fall within days

Associated Press, Thu August 31, 2006 08:19 EDT . KRISHAN FRANCIS Associated Press Writer COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) _ Sri Lanka's top-ranking general on Thursday vowed that within a few days the military would take control of an eastern, Tamil rebel-held enclave where fierce fighting since the weekend has killed scores of combatants and forced hundreds from their homes.

Analysts, however, said that even if the military did seize Sampur, it would not end the state's more than two-decade conflict with ethnic Tamil separatists.

The military launched a major assault to recapture the Sampur region on Sunday, saying that in the hands of Tamil Tiger rebels it posed a threat to the strategic Trincomalee naval base.

Government troops are only two kilometers (1.24 miles) outside of Sampur, Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka told The Associated Press on Thursday, predicting that the separatist rebels would be flushed out within a few days.

In recent months, Sri Lanka has returned to the brink of full-scale war, with both sides launching major military offensives in the north and east, although neither side appears to have gained much ground, observers say.

``It is a war of shifting territory, an endless seesaw war. Sometimes the (rebels) gain territory, and sometimes the government does,'' M.R. Narayan Swamy, who has written extensively about the Tamil Tigers and Sri Lanka, said by telephone from New Delhi.

``In the past, we see that the Sri Lankan army has taken many offensives against the Tamil Tigers. It gives the outside world the impression that they have the upper hand and that the Tigers are on the run.

``But the Tigers bounce back in other areas. If that happens this time, we should not be surprised.''

The international community has expressed concerns about the growing humanitarian crisis in the north and east, where about 220,000 people have been made homeless by near-daily shelling, airstrikes and artillery fire since April.

It has also urged the government to provide greater security for aid workers, who are facing ever-increasing threats in their attempts to help the displaced, many of whom are ethnic Tamils and living in rebel-held territory.

On Wednesday, the country's Nordic cease-fire monitors blamed security forces for the killings of 17 Sri Lankans who worked for the international aid agency, Action Against Hunger, in eastern Muttur.

The government has vehemently rejected the allegations.

The ruling by the outgoing head of the monitoring mission, Ulf Henricsson, was ``unprofessional'' as it was not based on scientific facts, government spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella said Thursday.

The ruling, however, prompted the U.N.'s humanitarian coordinator in New York, Jan Egeland, to warn that unless the government could protect aid workers, the U.N. would pull out of Sri Lanka.

The U.N's top envoy in Sri Lanka, however, indicated the agency was committed to its work in the tropical island south of India.

``Of course we are terribly concerned and we expect the government to do right thing, but right now we are in a major effort to support 200,000 displaced people, and we have a job to do,'' Miguel Bermeo told The Associated Press on Thursday.

The government said it had already sent 55 trucks of emergency food and other humanitarian goods to the Wanni, a vast swath of territory in the north held by the Tigers.

Another 155 trucks were waiting at the checkpoint in Vavuniya for the rebels to allow it to pass into their territory, Essential Services Commissioner S.B. Divaratne said at a Cabinet press briefing Thursday. A cargo ship also was being loaded in Colombo with 3,800 metric tons of food and other goods for northern Jaffna Peninsula, which has been virtually cut off since the rebels made a major push to recapture the region considered the heart of the Tamil culture on Aug. 11.

The 11-day battle caused heavy losses to both sides, with estimates ranging between 800 and 1,000 combatants killed, according to military figures and humanitarian groups.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam took up arms in 1983, claiming that the country's 3.2 million Tamils needed a separate homeland to escape the discrimination of the majority Sinhalese.

The resulting conflict cost the lives of at least 65,000 people before a 2002 cease-fire halted large-scale fighting. Peace talks however broke down in February, and the two sides have since returned to a war footing.

Earlier this week, the United Nations said some 217,457 people have displaced in the last few months of fighting.

Another 10,000 have fled by boat to the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, which has close historical ties to Sri Lanka's Tamils, it said.

The navy arrested 18 ethnic Tamils overnight who were trying to flee to India from northwest Sri Lanka, navy spokesman Commander D.K.P. Dassanayake said Thursday.