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| Sri Lanka | ||
| Under fire Lanka offers olive branch to LTTE | ||
| 2007-09-24 | ||
| COLOMBO - Sri Lanka offered on Sunday to halt major military operations against Tamil separatists in exchange for peace talks following intense international censure. Troops will not press ahead with an offensive if Tamil Tiger rebels agree to talk, Defence Ministry secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse told a newspaper amid pressure from the island’s key foreign backers not to pursue the military option. The country’s top defence official said it was now up to the Tigers to decide if the military should keep up its drive and urged them to resume peace negotiations which collapsed in October last year. “The decision (of war or peace) is theirs and I believe they wouldn’t reject this opportunity,” Rajapakse told the Sunday Island. ”We’ll not take advantage of the ground situation,” if the Tigers agree to negotiate. Rajapakse, who is also the president’s younger brother, made the comments after the the United States urged Colombo against pressing ahead with a military drive. The European Union and neighbouring India have also warned against an all-out military campaign.
Rajapakse had on Monday called for stepped-up military action to finish off the rebels. “Without defeating terrorism, we can’t have a political settlement,” he said last week in a speech in the northeastern coastal city of Trincomalee as part of celebrations after the ministry said three rebel gun-running ships had been sunk. “The president is working hard on a political settlement,” he said, adding: “Whatever the political settlement, it cannot be implemented unless terrorism is eradicated.” The hard-hitting speech prompted the US ambassador to Sri Lanka to warn there was no military solution to the Indian Ocean island’s long-running separatist conflict, which has claimed more than 60,000 lives since 1972. “The expulsion of the LTTE from the east (of the island) and the recent sinking of several LTTE ships carrying arms and other provisions mark important military successes,” Blake said. “But these tactical successes should not tempt the government to re-consider whether Sri Lanka’s conflict can be won by military means. It cannot.”
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| Posted by:Steve White |
| #1 |
| Posted by: john frum 2007-09-24 09:50 |