COLOMBO, Aug 4: Norway launched high-level talks on Friday in a bid to pull Sri Lanka back from all-out war as thousands of Muslims fled the bloodiest fighting in four years that has claimed nearly 170 lives.
Peace broker Oslo sent special envoy Jon Hanssen-Bauer who immediately went in for talks with Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremenayake and Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera, officials said.
Details of the discussions were not immediately known but diplomats close to the peace process said the thrust of the discussions was to save the collapsing ceasefire which Oslo arranged and put in place in February 2002.
“The latest talks have become critically important for Sri Lanka,” a diplomat said. “The peace process is facing its biggest ever challenge.”
Hanssen-Bauer was due to travel to the rebel-held town of Kilinochchi on Saturday and spend a few days talking with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) leadership about salvaging what is left of the 2002 truce.
“The envoy will spend the weekend in Kilinochchi talking to the LTTE leadership,” said LTTE spokesman Velayadun Dayani. “He will talk about the peace process and the war-like situation.”
International concern was led by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan who called for an immediate halt to the latest battles, which erupted 10 days ago when the Tigers cut off a canal in north-eastern Trincomalee district supplying water to thousands of families.
The violence has raised fears of an all-out return to civil war on the island, where an often-broken ceasefire has tried to keep a lid on a Tamil insurgency that has left some 60,000 people dead in the past three decades.
Relief workers said families were using any transport they could find to get out of the mainly-Muslim town of Muttur near Trincomalee, which on Wednesday became the latest flashpoint in the battle that has claimed 169 lives by official count.
Most were heading to the safer town of Kantalai, about 35 kilometers (20 miles) away by road as the regular ferries which could have taken them to Trincomalee had been halted, officials said.
Five more civilians were killed in shelling Friday and another two soldiers died, raising to 33 the number of people killed in Muttur since Thursday, military officials and a Muslim legislator said.
The country’s main Muslim party, the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), said the minority community was facing a “humanitarian disaster” and urged the two sides to halt attacks.
SLMC leader Rauf Hakeem said security forces were responsible for the shelling that had killed a total of 27 Muslim civilians in Muttur since Thursday while the Tigers had prevented civilians fleeing to safety.
“The overwhelming evidence from people in those areas is that security forces carried out the shelling,” Hakeem told reporters here. “We apportion blame on both sides... If fighting is not stopped immediately, Muttur will be a ghost town.”
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said wanted security guarantees from the government and the rebels to allow it to reach civilians in Muttur.
“We have not been able to achieve the humanitarian corridor we wanted to establish for us to move freely and care for the affected people in Muttur,” ICRC spokesman Sukumar Rockwood told AFP.
As the civilians fled, the military was pouring more troops into the area, military officials said.
The fighting began on Wednesday last week when troops launched an offensive to take control of the Maavilaru sluice gates of a disputed canal after the rebels shut off the water.
It escalated on Monday when the army launched a major ground operation to try to take control of the reservoir.
The government announced Thursday that it was willing to call off the offensive and negotiate with the Tigers if they agreed to reopen the gates, which provide water for an estimated 15,000 families.—AFP
