Norway's top peace envoy met with the Sri Lankan president yesterday ahead of talks with Tamil rebels later this month, but with both sides accusing the other of escalating attacks that could cloud the prospects for peace.
Erik Solheim, who heads Norwegian efforts to end Sri Lanka's nearly two decades of civil war, met with President Mahinda Rajapakse, said Chandrapala Liyanage, a presidential spokesman. Solheim was accompanied by his aide, Jon Hanssen-Bauer.
No details of the talks were immediately available, but on Wednesday, the rebel political chief, S.P. Thamilselvan, said after meeting with Hanssen-Bauer that they were disappointed by the accelerated pace of paramilitary violence.
The rebels say the government has failed to honor a pledge made at the last round of peace talks in Geneva in February to disarm paramilitary groups.
Meanwhile, two members of a breakaway Tamil Tiger rebel faction were wounded in the fighting on Wednesday in the hamlet of Panichchankern, a rebel-controlled area in eastern Sri Lanka, according to the TamilNet Web site, which backs the mainstream Tiger rebels.
A rebel faction based in eastern Sri Lanka broke away from the mainstream Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2004. The LTTE accuses the military of backing the renegade faction -- a charge the government denies.
There was no independent confirmation of the TamilNet report, as Sri Lankan police and army forces do not enter areas under rebel control.
The government accuses the separatist rebels of continuing to recruit underage combatants and attacking government troops.
A recent spike in violence that has left at least 166 people dead since December in the north and east -- where the majority of Sri Lanka's 3.2 million Tamils live -- has called in to question the efficacy of the cease-fire signed by the government and rebels in 2002 to end nearly two decades of civil war.
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
Poland is set to hold a presidential runoff election today between two candidates offering starkly different visions for the country’s future. The winner would succeed Polish President Andrzej Duda, a conservative who is finishing his second and final term. The outcome would determine whether Poland embraces a nationalist populist trajectory or pivots more fully toward liberal, pro-European policies. An exit poll by Ipsos would be released when polls close today at 9pm local time, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. Final results are expected tomorrow. Whoever wins can be expected to either help or hinder the
North Korea has detained another official over last week’s failed launch of a warship, which damaged the naval destroyer, state media reported yesterday. Pyongyang announced “a serious accident” at Wednesday last week’s launch ceremony, which crushed sections of the bottom of the new destroyer. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called the mishap a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness.” Ri Hyong-son, vice department director of the Munitions Industry Department of the Party Central Committee, was summoned and detained on Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. He was “greatly responsible for the occurrence of the serious accident,” it said. Ri is the fourth person
The collapse of the Swiss Birch glacier serves as a chilling warning of the escalating dangers faced by communities worldwide living under the shadow of fragile ice, particularly in Asia, experts said. Footage of the collapse on Wednesday showed a huge cloud of ice and rubble hurtling down the mountainside into the hamlet of Blatten. Swiss Development Cooperation disaster risk reduction adviser Ali Neumann said that while the role of climate change in the case of Blatten “still needs to be investigated,” the wider impacts were clear on the cryosphere — the part of the world covered by frozen water. “Climate change and
RSS