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
Polling stations have opened in the central Asian republic of Kazakhstan for the election of a new parliament
more »
Thousands of Ukrainians have rallied in Kiev in support of opposition presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko
more »
A Ukrainian opposition leader and presidential candidate is in a Vienna
more »
The government promotes this Baltic nation as E-stonia, and it has a point
more »
Lukashenka will face problems with getting support of majority in changing Constitution
more »
Just last month Islamist guerrillas kidnapped and murdered the Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni in Iraq, while security guard Fabrizio Quattrocchi met a similar fate in April
more »
The number of people looking for work in Germany rose in August
more »
Macedonia's parliament has ordered a referendum to be held in November on a law seen to favour ethnic Albanians
more »
Russia began counting the cost today at the end of siege of a school captured by Chechen gunmen
more »
The blast happened at the end of the evening rush hour
more »