Sri Lanka: firing in north after peace talks fail
The army has accused the Tigers of artillery attacks in Jaffna. Yesterday a meeting in Geneva between the government and rebels turned out to be another failure in the arduous peace process.
Geneva (AsiaNews/Agencies) In the immediate aftermath of failed peace talks in Geneva, the Sri Lankan army accused Tamil rebels of launching artillery attacks against its troops in the north-eastern Jaffna peninsula. Military spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe said the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelem (LTTE) fired mortars and artillery at Jaffna's Muhamalai defences. He said there had been no let up in attacks over the weekend.
There is no sign of any potential breakthrough in the crisis rocking Sri Lanka. Two days of talks in Geneva between the government and Tigers ended yesterday in failure. Delegations from the warring parties came together on 28 and 29 October in Geneva under Norwegian mediation to discuss how to stop the spiral of violence that has already killed 3,000 people since December. But the meeting did not lead to any agreement and no new date was set for resumption of talks.
As a preliminary condition, the rebels insisted that the A9 highway be reopened. The road links Jaffna to the south of the island. According to the Tigers and NGOs operating in the area, the reopening of this road is crucial to prevent sharp deterioration in a current humanitarian crisis. The government said the road was closed because the rebels persisted in attacking it and extorting fees from vehicles using it.
The peace talks before last, in February, were also held in Switzerland between the LTTE and Colombo. Previous attempts to return to the negotiating table failed in June.
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