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Sri Lanka talks end with no deals amid news of fresh attack
Hakone, Mar 21: Sri Lanka`s peace negotiators officially ended four days of talks here today without agreement on key human rights issues and amid reports of fresh violence at home, officials said.
Hakone, Mar 21: Sri Lanka's peace negotiators officially ended four days of talks here today without agreement on key human rights issues and amid reports of fresh violence at home, officials said.
Representatives of the Sri Lankan government and the rebel Tamil Tigers at the Japanese-hosted talks concluded their bargaining yesterday and went into a brief session Friday to finalise a joint statement, officials close to the talks said.
"This is a session where we were unable to achieve what we had set out initially," said government negotiator Rauf Hakeem. "But, we agreed to mechanisms to safeguard human rights when we meet next month," he added. Norwegian peace brokers said there was no breakthrough at the latest talks, the sixth round for the two sides since their first face-to-face contact in September.
"There is no breakthrough... But there was a lot of hard work and there will have to be many more sessions of hard work before we get to a settlement," said Norwegian diplomat Erik Solheim.
Sri Lanka's chief peace negotiator, G L Peiris, said the government and the Tigers had taken up the contentious issue of power and revenue sharing under a federal system that is to be the basis for a final settlement. As the talks were entering the final phase before a joint press conference, a defence ministry official in Sri Lanka said a Chinese fishing trawler with 23 crew on board had been attacked off the east coast of the island by suspected Tamil Tigers.
The talks here were initially in doubt as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) hinted they could boycott them to protest the march 10 sinking by the navy of one of their merchant vessels with 11 rebels onboard.
During the talks Japan's special peace envoy to Sri Lanka Yasushi Akashi warned that a drawn out war in Iraq could have implications for a major aid-pledging conference Tokyo has called in June to support Sri Lanka. He said Sri Lanka, endeavouring to end three decades of ethnic bloodshed that has claimed more than 60,000 lives, could be "the only bright spark in a turbulent period the rest of the world is going through."
Bureau Report
"This is a session where we were unable to achieve what we had set out initially," said government negotiator Rauf Hakeem. "But, we agreed to mechanisms to safeguard human rights when we meet next month," he added. Norwegian peace brokers said there was no breakthrough at the latest talks, the sixth round for the two sides since their first face-to-face contact in September.
"There is no breakthrough... But there was a lot of hard work and there will have to be many more sessions of hard work before we get to a settlement," said Norwegian diplomat Erik Solheim.
Sri Lanka's chief peace negotiator, G L Peiris, said the government and the Tigers had taken up the contentious issue of power and revenue sharing under a federal system that is to be the basis for a final settlement. As the talks were entering the final phase before a joint press conference, a defence ministry official in Sri Lanka said a Chinese fishing trawler with 23 crew on board had been attacked off the east coast of the island by suspected Tamil Tigers.
The talks here were initially in doubt as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) hinted they could boycott them to protest the march 10 sinking by the navy of one of their merchant vessels with 11 rebels onboard.
During the talks Japan's special peace envoy to Sri Lanka Yasushi Akashi warned that a drawn out war in Iraq could have implications for a major aid-pledging conference Tokyo has called in June to support Sri Lanka. He said Sri Lanka, endeavouring to end three decades of ethnic bloodshed that has claimed more than 60,000 lives, could be "the only bright spark in a turbulent period the rest of the world is going through."
Bureau Report