‘Norway meeting will help revive Lankan peace process’
Air raids after bomb kills two soldiers
Afp, Tokyo
Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama said yesterday he was optimistic that a meeting of top donors this week would help to revive the island nation's moribund peace process. Peace broker Norway is holding the crucial meeting of Sri Lanka's top aid donors in a bid to halt a new wave of bloodshed. "We are expecting a very favourable development. The outcome is expected to encourage the current peace process toward contributing to the sustainability of our country," said Bogollagma. Oslo-brokered peace talks collapsed in October last year and since then diplomatic efforts have failed to end violence in the bitter ethnic conflict which has claimed more than 60,000 lives in the past 35 years. More than 5,000 people have died in the latest wave of fighting since December 2005 despite a truce in place since February 2002. Bogollagama, in Japan for the first time since he took office in January, met Wednesday with his Japanese counterpart Taro Aso, who pledged about one million dollars' worth of aid for landmine removal and support for refugees. Japan accounts for about two-thirds of total bilateral aid to the island and international human rights groups have been lobbying Tokyo to exert pressure on Colombo to stem the spiralling violence. Bogollagma praised Japan's continued assistance even as some donor countries move to cut aid owing to alleged human rights abuses. Aso on Wednesday raised Japanese concerns over the human rights situation in Sri Lanka during a meeting with Bogollagama, according to Japan. Britain, Germany and the Netherlands have already slashed various forms of aid to Colombo due to human rights abuses and other reasons linked to the conflict with Tamil Tiger rebels. Several other nations could follow suit. The United States also has refused to include Sri Lanka in its so-called Millennium Challenge Account, under which it could receive millions of dollars in aid for building critical infrastructure. Meanwhile, Sri Lankan warplanes attacked suspected Tamil Tiger rebel camps in the island's north on Thursday as an officer and a soldier were killed in a roadside bomb attack, the defence ministry said. Supersonic jets "completely destroyed" two camps of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the district of Mullaitivu, the defence ministry said in a statement. Shortly after the air raids, suspected LTTE activists triggered a powerful Claymore mine in Jaffna as soldiers were on a routine motorcycle patrol, the statement said. It said an officer and a soldier were killed instantly.
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