Sri Lanka says it wants to resume peace talks with Tamil rebels immediately

Associated Press, Wed November 22, 2006 00:06 EST COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - (AP) The Sri Lankan government said Wednesday it was willing to immediately resume stalled peace talks with Tamil rebels, but accused the insurgents of not cooperating. Representatives from the United States, Japan, the European Union and Norway gathered Tuesday at the U.S. State Department for two days of talks aimed at forming new strategies for encouraging peace in Sri Lanka - .
They warned warring parties that they risk future financial aid if they do not abandon violence.
``There is simply no way that the international community can impose peace in Sri Lanka - . It must be homegrown'' by the rebels and the government, Norwegian Aid Minister Erik Solheim, who brokered the truce, told reporters after the meeting in Washington. ``Then we can all assist them.''
As the international parties met, violence continued to wrack the nation of 19 million, threatening a 2002 cease-fire that temporarily halted two decades of a civil war that killed as many as 65,000 people.
Solheim said officials were ``very much impatient'' with cease-fire violations. In Colombo, foreign cease-fire monitors have blamed both sides of the conflict for violations.
Since last December, airstrikes, mine attacks, assassinations and regular exchanges of heavy arms fire have killed more than 3,200 fighters and civilians. Both sides insist they have not withdrawn from the truce.
The last round of talks held in Geneva in October broke down when the government rejected a rebel demand that a highway that links the Tamil-majority north with the mainland be reopened immediately. The road was closed in August after the rebels mounted an attack on a military checkpoint that controls traffic and checks movement of people. The government says the rebels use the road to transport weapons, move fighters and collect taxes.
The government said earlier this week it will reopen the highway for a one-time run to build a buffer stock, allowing the flow of essential supplies to half a million civilians trapped by fighting for the first time in four months.
But the rebels reacted sharply, saying the action was politically motivated and wanted the government to reopen the road permanently.
``We can discuss all these issues at face-to-face talks,'' said Rambukwella, the government spokesman.
In Washington, U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns noted that the United States is not a neutral observer: it believes the Tigers are a terror organization responsible for innocent deaths, and the government has a right to maintain its territorial integrity. The EU and Sri Lanka - join the United States in designating the Tigers, also called the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a terrorist organization