Sri Lanka: Foreign minister calls for talks to end `futile' 17-year war.
Published:
18 May 2000 y., Thursday
Ending a lull in their separatist fight, rebels in Sri Lanka resumed an assault on their former stronghold of Jaffna on Tuesday, while the island's government said it was time to talk peace. Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar acknowledged that Vellupillai Prabhakaran, leader of the Tamil rebels, was fighting a ``good battle'' but said it was time to come to the peace table after 17 years of war.
The government's appeal for peace talks came less than a week after it had rejected a cease-fire to allow nearly 40,000 government soldiers to withdraw from the northern Jaffna Peninsula, which the rebels seek as part of a Tamil homeland. There was no comment on the government peace offer on the Tamil guerrillas' Web sites, but the latest update showed the rebels had resumed their attack on Jaffna after a three-day lull. The Web sites said the rebels had launched assaults on their former stronghold of Jaffna from two fronts and were within one mile of the city. Chief government information officer Ariya Rubasinghe said at least 40 rebels and six soldiers were killed in the clash that erupted late Monday and lasted nearly 12 hours. The fighting took place 2 1/2 miles southeast of the center of Jaffna, the base of Tamil culture and the largest city in the north, where most of the country's minority Tamils live. The Tamils claim they face discrimination from the Sinhalese majority, which controls the government and the military. The Tamil rebels are fighting for a separate homeland in northern Sri Lanka, an Indian Ocean nation off India formerly known as Ceylon. More than 62,000 people have been killed since fighting erupted in 1983.
Šaltinis:
Internet
Copying, publishing, announcing any information from the News.lt portal without written permission of News.lt editorial office is prohibited.
The most popular articles
Pope John Paul II met on November 18 with a delegation of religious leaders from Azerbaijan
more »
Ashgabat More Affluent, But Poisoned By 'Atmosphere Of Political Repression'
more »
Kazakhstan’s National Security Committee liquidated an Al-Qaeda group
more »
Protesters were dug in last night at a government office in southern Russia, demanding the resignation of the region's president after gangland-style killings
more »
Many more workers have arrived in Britain from Eastern Europe since enlargement of the EU in May than the Government predicted, figures showed yesterday
more »
Touted by the East German leadership as a barrier against "fascist provocation," the Wall was really an attempt to stop waves of skilled workers and educated people leaving a repressive state
more »
After a year in jail on charges of fraud and tax evasion, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Russia's richest man, has told his family that he will give up making money if he is released
more »
A train crash in southern England has left at least six people dead
more »
Tens of thousands of supporters of presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko filled Kiev's main square Saturday
more »
Estonia's six months in EU have brought no massive changes for Finland
more »