Associated Press, Sun October 1, 2006 06:35
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) _ Seven Tamil Tiger rebels were killed in two separate battles with the Sri Lankan navy, the military said Sunday, as a Norwegian peace envoy arrived to try and end a seven-month deadlock in peace talks between the two sides.
Three rebels were killed Saturday evening on
The navy operation followed an attempted raid Friday by a Tiger vessel that was destroyed trying to enter a naval base near the island, he said.
Four guerrillas died in the sea battle and two bodies were recovered, the official said.
The attempted infiltration prompted the navy to search
On the
Also in
The fighting came as Norwegian envoy Jon Hanssen-Bauer arrived in the island for talks with government and Tiger leaders on the country's peace process.
``He will be meeting officials from both sides during the week,'' said Erik Ivo Nurnberg, a spokesman for
The last round of peace talks was February in
Violence in recent months has killed more than 1,000 combatants and civilians in the country's northeast.
Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Sunday that its is ``highly worried'' because of a grenade explosion in front of the agency's office in
Although nobody was hurt in the explosion, the ICRC in a statement urged the government and Tamil Tiger rebels to ``refrain from acts that jeopardize the safety of humanitarian workers.''
On Saturday, elite Sri Lankan police forces killed 11 rebels in a pre-emptive attack in the east, while a bomb blast killed three policemen in the northwest.
The Tigers _ formally called the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam _ have fought the government since 1983 to create a separate state for ethnic minority Tamils following decades of discrimination by the majority Sinhalese-dominated state.
More than 66,000 people have been killed in the conflict.
If the LTTE is not willing to come for peace negotiations, the government will forget them and discuss with the Tamil people and Tamil political parties represented in the parliament on a devolution framework, Government Defence Spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella said yesterday. “As a viable solution for the ethnic problem the government has complete faith in the success of the All Party Conference. We want to get the participation of the LTTE in these sessions but if this will prove futile we have to come to a working arrangement with the Tamil people and the Tamil parties represented in the parliament,” he said.
As such, he said, it is the conclusion of the government that the word given by the LTTE unfortunately lacks credibility, and pointed out that this is the main reason that the government requested for a written pledge from the Tiger leader himself.
However, LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran had retorted saying that a written word given by the Political Wing leader S P Thamilselvan is as good as the word of the supremo himself. However, the government spokesman said that this is another indication of the LTTE’s lack of sincerity with regard to finding a genuine solution for the ethnic problem.
“We have serious doubt about the undertakings given by the LTTE leadership because of the past experiences where they have not adhered to their word. However, we still maintain that the doors are still open for peace talks and we expect them to be genuine in their intentions,” Rambukwella said. He added that the government has strong suspicion that the LTTE is only interested in talks because the ground situation is not favourable for them.
Regarding the Tiger leader’s refusal to meet with Eric Solheim due to his security constraints, Rambukwella said the government is not concerned about the arrangements between Kilinochchi and the Norwegians.
