Sri Lanka vowed yesterday to persevere in efforts for a negotiated peace with Tamil Tiger rebels while maintaining military pressure, which the government said is bringing results.
Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama said Sri Lanka's military had rooted out Tiger rebels from the east of the country in operations that complement efforts to negotiate a solution to the long-running conflict.
"With the exception of a few jungle hideouts, most of the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka, which was until recently terrorized by the LTTE [Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam] has been rid of this menace," Bogollagama told the Shangri-La Dialogue of senior Asian defence and security officials and experts.
The LTTE's 35-year campaign for independence has claimed more than 60,000 lives.
"We see no contradiction in dealing firmly with the scourge of terrorism perpetrated by the LTTE, even as the government of Sri Lanka seeks to evolve a consensus for a negotiated political settlement to the armed conflict," he said.
That is why the government sought in recent months to battle the Tigers, "to convince the group that it cannot expect to achieve a military victory," he said.
Government troops and rebels have been locked in combat following the breakdown of a 2002 Norwegian-brokered truce.
Official sources in Sri Lanka said yesterday the rebels had launched a major attack on a military gun position in the country's north, wounding at least 15 soldiers.
Security forces were keeping up air, ground and sea attacks against the Tigers in the island's northern and eastern regions.
"There is no offensive by the government," Bogollagama told reporters on the sidelines of the conference. "We are only trying to have a limited engagement when it is needed ... The government never fired the first bullet."
On Friday, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse offered to open peace negotiations but the rebels have insisted they would not resume peace talks unless the government halted military action.
Rajapakse would enter negotiations with the rebels if they agreed to resume where they left off in October, his spokesman Chandrapala Liyanage said.
"I am a total democrat and I believe in a peaceful negotiated settlement," he quoted the president as saying.
Bogollagama reiterated the government was ready to talk.
"We have said so and we are saying it now. We will continue to engage LTTE at talks and we will expect them to respond and come early for talks," he said.
In his speech to the conference, Bogollagama called the Tigers a threat to shipping in the Indian Ocean and appealed for global action against the guerrilla group.
He said the LTTE were one of the few "terrorist organizations" in the world with a proven maritime capability.
Along with their Sea Tigers naval combat unit, they owned a substantial number of ships which carry out traditional trading and also smuggled military hardware, he said, accusing them of "numerous acts of maritime terrorism."
A top Sri Lankan defense official told reporters in Singapore that authorities had foiled a potentially devastating attack on Colombo when they intercepted a truck laden with 1,052kg of explosives on Friday.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in