Tamil Tiger rebels said yesterday that they are ready to resume stalled peace talks with the Sri Lankan government based on their proposal for self-rule.
"The Liberation Tigers are fully prepared to resume the negotiations ... talks can begin when the government of Sri Lanka says it is ready," the Tigers' political chief, S.P. Thamilselvan, was quoted as saying on the pro-rebel TamilNet Web site.
Thamilselvan conveyed the rebels' stand during discussions with Norwegian peace-brokers in the rebel-held town of Kilinochchi earlier yesterday.
The rebel leader stressed that the group is prepared to resume negotiations on its blueprint for self-rule, called the Interim Self-Governing Authority, the Web site said.
The discussions were held one day after mediator Eric Solheim and Norway's Deputy Foreign Minister Vidar Helgesenmet with President Chandrika Kumaratunga and said talks between the insurgents and government were unlikely to resume anytime soon.
Kumaratunga's government and a Marxist party, her junior coalition partner, have in the past criticized the Norwegian-brokered peace process and have rejected the Tigers' proposal for wide autonomy.
"It might take some time before the parties are in a position to return to the negotiation table," Helgesen said in a statement after Sunday's meeting.
He didn't give reasons why talks might not resume soon but he urged both sides to abide by a ceasefire agreement signed two years ago.
‘ABSURD MISTAKE’: The election commission said that there had been a failure to anticipate turnout after 14 polling stations ran short of ballot papers South Korean riot police yesterday cleared protesters from a Seoul polling station after a 35-hour blockade sparked by a shortage of ballot papers during local elections earlier this week. Wednesday’s election was the first nationwide vote since South Korean President Lee Jae-myung took office following the ouster of Yoon Suk-yeol over his short-lived martial law declaration. Lee’s ruling Democratic Party swept most races, but failed to flip the crucial Seoul mayoral seat. The South Korean National Election Commission apologized, blaming a failure to anticipate turnout after 14 polling stations in Seoul ran short of ballot papers. Some polling stations stayed open until 10pm to
France experienced its hottest spring on record, the French weather service said on Tuesday, after an exceptional early heat wave that also broke highs for the season in England and Wales. Meteo-France said the average nationwide temperature over March to May was 13.8°C — about 1.7°C above the norm, and surpassing records set in 2011 and 2020. “The warmest spring since records began in 1900,” it said in a bulletin. All three months were warmer than average, but the onset of an “unprecedented heatwave” late last month pushed the mercury to highs typically seen at the height of the summer. “Our country had never
A Sherpa guide was found crawling to base camp on Mount Everest a week after he went missing and was reunited with his family, who had given up hope he would return. Dawa Sherpa was last seen on Friday last week descending the mountain, but he did not reach base camp even though his client did. The pair were among the last climbers on the mountain as the climbing season came to an end and the route was dismantled. Dawa was located by a cleaning crew on Thursday morning as he was crawling down the snowy slopes around the Khumbu Icefall, just above
Chinese authorities are snuffing out any remembrance of the deadly 1989 military crackdown on student-led pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square, which happened 37 years ago yesterday, in a further tightening of a years-long campaign to erase what happened from public memory. Police told relatives of the victims they would not be allowed to visit a cemetery in Beijing on the anniversary of the crackdown, a person with knowledge of the matter said. Relatives of the victims visited the cemetery on the anniversary for more than 30 years to read memorial statements with police keeping watch, Amnesty International said. Hundreds of people,
RSS