Sri Lankan president wants success in talks with Tiger rebels

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse said on Monday that the proposed talks with Tamil Tigers need to end successfully as his government was committed to a negotiated settlement to the separatist armed conflict.

A presidential office release said that Rajapakse, while addressing the ambassadors of the European Union, the United States, Norway and Japan Monday morning, urged the co-chairs in Sri Lanka's peace process to convince the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to give up violence and enter talks.

The Sri Lankan government has proposed to the LTTE to re-start the direct talks on Oct. 28 and 29, but it still awaits the rebel group's response.

The president told the ambassadors that the government reserved the right to go ahead with its military offensives in the event the LTTE continued to indulge in acts of violence against the state.

The talks, if held, would be the first since the military hostilities broke out between the two sides in late July.

The military managed to get the better of offensives by dealing the LTTE some heavy blows both in the north and in the east.

Early last month the troops successfully annexed from rebel control a key Eastern Province location.

The LTTE accused the government of violating the February 2002 ceasefire by making advances into rebel territory.

The Sri Lankan government maintained such actions were necessary in order to ensure national security interests.

The international community has been urging the two sides to get back to negotiations to end the cycle of violence that has cost over 2,000 lives since the beginning of December 2005.

The Sri Lankan government faces accusations of human rights violations in combating the threat from the rebels. In response to criticism, Rajapakse has pledged to appoint an international panel of observers to monitor rights violations such as abductions and disappearances of people.

Source: Xinhua