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Sri Lanka asks int'l community to exert pressure on Tamil rebels+(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)COLOMBO, April 23_(Kyodo) _ The Sri Lanka government called on the European Union on Sunday to exert maximum pressure on the Tamil Tiger rebels to desist from escalating violence in the country's northeast claimed as a Tamil homeland and engage in peace talks. The government said the listing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam as a terrorist organization by the European Union is a sanction that may be applied as fresh violence involving rebels has claimed eight lives, including five soldiers in 24 hours. "We have been in consultation with the EU and we expect it to go ahead with the threatened sanctions if the LTTE continues to behave in this appalling manner," said Palith Kohona, head of the government's peace secretariat. "The listing of the LTTE as a terrorist organization is one of these sanctions." "The Norwegians can do a lot to pressure the LTTE," added Media Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa. The Norwegian government is facilitating the peace process, with Oslo having brokered the February 2002 Cease-fire Agreement or CFA which has now been stretched to the near breaking point with both the government and the LTTE saying the country is very close to war. More than 50 members of the armed forces and police have been killed in April in bomb attacks blamed on the rebels. Tamil Tiger rebels in turn have accused the military of reprisal attacks on civilians. A three-year deadlock in peace negotiations ended in February with the two sides meeting in Geneva to discuss "proper implementation of the CFA." A second round of talks set for April was first postponed by a few days and is now being endangered over a spat over facilitation of consultations between eastern commanders of the LTTE and the LTTE leadership prior to the talks. The LTTE is currently banned in India, the United States, Britain and Canada. The listing of the LTTE as a terrorist organization in the European Union, where a large number of ethnic Tamils live and work, can be damaging to the Tiger rebels. "The Tigers raise a lot of funds from the Tamil Diaspora in Western Europe," a diplomat here said. "An EU ban can hurt their fundraising in Europe." |