The Tamil Tiger rebels have agreed to resume talks with the government to review the country's fragile ceasefire, the Norwegian Embassy in Colombo and a rebel spokesman said yesterday.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam have "agreed to discuss the CFA [ceasefire agreement] with the Sri Lankan government," Tom Knappskog of the Norwegian Embassy said.
"The willingness to have the talks is there, but no date or venue have been decided," Knappskog added.
In response to Knappskog's comments, Tamil rebel spokesman, Daya Master, confirmed that an agreement in principle had been reached to hold talks but that no date or venue had been set.
The earlier peace parlays broke down about one year after Norwegian peace negotiators brokered a ceasefire in 2002 to halt the country's brutal civil war. Six rounds of inconclusive talks were held.
The rebels earlier yesterday denied reports that they had agreed to meet with the Sri Lankan government to review the ceasefire.
Master, the rebel spokesman, said the rebel leadership was writing a letter to the Norwegians to detail their position.
The rebels are led by the reclusive Velupillai Prabhakaran, the longtime head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam.
Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga wants to hold direct talks with rebels in an effort to end a spate of political assassinations that have plagued the country, her office said.
She made the request hours after Parliament on Thursday approved an extension of an emergency rule decree imposed after last week's assassination of Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar by a suspected rebel sniper.
Earlier news reports, quoting Norway's Deputy Foreign Minister Vidar Helgesen, said the guerrillas had agreed to hold direct talks with the government.
Before Kadirgamar's killing, the rebels had refused to consider talks until the government disarmed paramilitaries who the Tigers said were operating in government-held areas and largely responsible for attacking rebel fighters.
The government denies that it has been sponsoring paramilitaries.
The emergency laws give broad power to the military -- which President Kumaratunga controls -- to make arrests, interrogate suspects and search houses at will.
The laws also put a ban on public gatherings, gives the president lawmaking powers and allows media censorship.
Soon after the legislature had approved the motion, the president's office said that she wanted a review of the 2002 Norwegian-brokered ceasefire.
The Tamil Tigers began fighting in 1983 for a separate nation for the minority Tamils in the north and east of the island nation off the southern tip of India.
DOUBLE-MURDER CASE: The officer told the dispatcher he would check the locations of the callers, but instead headed to a pizzeria, remaining there for about an hour A New Jersey officer has been charged with misconduct after prosecutors said he did not quickly respond to and properly investigate reports of a shooting that turned out to be a double murder, instead allegedly stopping at an ATM and pizzeria. Franklin Township Police Sergeant Kevin Bollaro was the on-duty officer on the evening of Aug. 1, when police received 911 calls reporting gunshots and screaming in Pittstown, about 96km from Manhattan in central New Jersey, Hunterdon County Prosecutor Renee Robeson’s office said. However, rather than responding immediately, prosecutors said GPS data and surveillance video showed Bollaro drove about 3km
‘MOTHER’ OF THAILAND: In her glamorous heyday in the 1960s, former Thai queen Sirikit mingled with US presidents and superstars such as Elvis Presley The year-long funeral ceremony of former Thai queen Sirikit started yesterday, with grieving royalists set to salute the procession bringing her body to lie in state at Bangkok’s Grand Palace. Members of the royal family are venerated in Thailand, treated by many as semi-divine figures, and lavished with glowing media coverage and gold-adorned portraits hanging in public spaces and private homes nationwide. Sirikit, the mother of Thai King Vajiralongkorn and widow of the nation’s longest-reigning monarch, died late on Friday at the age of 93. Black-and-white tributes to the royal matriarch are being beamed onto towering digital advertizing billboards, on
Tens of thousands of people on Saturday took to the streets of Spain’s eastern city of Valencia to mark the first anniversary of floods that killed 229 people and to denounce the handling of the disaster. Demonstrators, many carrying photos of the victims, called on regional government head Carlos Mazon to resign over what they said was the slow response to one of Europe’s deadliest natural disasters in decades. “People are still really angry,” said Rosa Cerros, a 42-year-old government worker who took part with her husband and two young daughters. “Why weren’t people evacuated? Its incomprehensible,” she said. Mazon’s
POWER ABUSE WORRY: Some people warned that the broad language of the treaty could lead to overreach by authorities and enable the repression of government critics Countries signed their first UN treaty targeting cybercrime in Hanoi yesterday, despite opposition from an unlikely band of tech companies and rights groups warning of expanded state surveillance. The new global legal framework aims to bolster international cooperation to fight digital crimes, from child pornography to transnational cyberscams and money laundering. More than 60 countries signed the declaration, which means it would go into force once ratified by those states. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the signing as an “important milestone,” and that it was “only the beginning.” “Every day, sophisticated scams destroy families, steal migrants and drain billions of dollars from our economy...
RSS