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Lanka govt signals end to Norway’s peace role

International concern mounts over end of truce

AFP, Colombo
Sri Ijnka signalled yesterday it wanted to end Norway's position as the island s main peace broker as international concern mounted over Colombo's decision to end a truce with Tamil Tiger guerrillas.
The Colombo government, which declared an end to the tattered ceasefire on Wednesday, said it wanted Oslo to have a "redefined role" in the country where more than 60,000 people have been killed in ethnic violence since 1972.
"Now that there are new circumstances. we naturally expect the Norwegians to have a redefined role." Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama told reporters.
"We will tell you what that role is when the (Sri Lankan) government decides."
Norway was instrumental in persuading the government and the Tbmil Tigers to sign a truce in February 2002, and has since then tried but failed to secure progress at successive rounds of negotiations.
Fighting has escalated in recent months, and the government now believes it has the upper hand and is in a position to capture the Tamil Tiger mini-state in the north.
Bogollagama said the Sri Lankan government will press ahead to crush “the scourge of terrorism." while working on a "practical and sustainable political solution.”
He also said the truce deal was flawed from the start," although he stopped short of calling for Nordic diplomats -• frequently accused by Colombo of being sympathetic to the Tamil Tigers --to go home.
There was no immediate reaction from the Norwegians, but Norway's international Development Minister Erik
Solheim, an architect of the truce deal, has already voiced serious concern over the prospect of more bloodshed.
Sri Lanka s top aid donor Japan also expressed its "deep concern'' over the formal end to the truce.
"Our country is deeply con cerned that the decision by the Sri Lankan government would not only further stall the peace process but also worsen the conflict," Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura said in a state ment.
“Our country strongly hopes that the procedures needed tor progress in the peace process will be implemented swiftly."
The United States, which has banned the Tigers since October 1997, asked both Colombo and the rebels not to escalate violence.
"The United States is troubled," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said, adding that
"ending the ceasefire agreement will make it more difficult to achieve a lasting, peaceful solu tion."
Canada's Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier also voiced fears for "civilians, humanitarian work ers and human rights defenders."
"Violence will not produce solutions, it will only bring more tragedy to the people of Sri Lanka." headded.
New York-based Human Rights Watch also repeated its call for a UN human rights monitoring mission in Sri Lanka -- something the world body has been pushing for but the Sri Lankan government has rejected.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam have not yet formally renounced the truce, although rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran said in November that the peace process was a waste of time.