Sri Lanka govt signals end to Norway's peace role
COLOMBO (AFP) — Sri Lanka signalled Friday it wanted to end Norway's position as the island's main peace broker as international concern mounted over Colombo's decision to end a truce with Tamil Tiger guerrillas.
The Colombo government, which declared an end to the tattered ceasefire on Wednesday, said it wanted Oslo to have a "redefined role" in the country where more than 60,000 people have been killed in ethnic violence since 1972.
"Now that there are new circumstances, we naturally expect the Norwegians to have a redefined role," Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama told reporters.
"We will tell you what that role is when the (Sri Lankan) government decides."
Norway was instrumental in persuading the government and the Tamil Tigers to sign a truce in February 2002, and has since then tried but failed to secure progress at successive rounds of negotiations.
Fighting has escalated in recent months, and the government now believes it has the upper hand and is in a position to capture the Tamil Tiger mini-state in the north.
Bogollagama said the Sri Lankan government will press ahead to crush "the scourge of terrorism," while working on a "practical and sustainable political solution."
He also said the truce deal was "flawed from the start," although he stopped short of calling for Nordic diplomats -- frequently accused by Colombo of being sympathetic to the Tamil Tigers -- to go home.
The Nordic countries responded by saying they were "deeply concerned" by the worsening situation in Sri Lanka.
"During the first three years (of the truce) ... as many as 10,000 lives may have been spared," the foreign ministers of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland said in a joint statement.
"The Nordic countries are worried that the violence and human suffering will now further escalate," they added.
Sri Lanka's top aid donor Japan also expressed its "deep concern" over the formal end to the truce.
"Our country is deeply concerned that the decision by the Sri Lankan government would not only further stall the peace process but also worsen the conflict," Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura said in a statement.
"Our country strongly hopes that the procedures needed for progress in the peace process will be implemented swiftly."
The United States, which has banned the Tigers since October 1997, asked both Colombo and the rebels not to escalate violence.
"The United States is troubled," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said, adding that "ending the ceasefire agreement will make it more difficult to achieve a lasting, peaceful solution."
Canada's Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier also voiced fears for "civilians, humanitarian workers and human rights defenders."
"Violence will not produce solutions, it will only bring more tragedy to the people of Sri Lanka," he added.
New York-based Human Rights Watch also repeated its call for a UN human rights monitoring mission in Sri Lanka -- something the world body has been pushing for but the Sri Lankan government has rejected.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam have not yet formally renounced the truce, although rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran said in November that the peace process was a waste of time.
International ratings agency Standard and Poor's warned Friday that the escalating war with the Tigers could hit the nation's credit status, particularly if the rebels began targeting economic assets.
