Tamil Tigers Leave for Geneva for Sri Lanka Truce Talks
Associated Press
February 17, 2006
Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels are to leave for Geneva to attend crucial peace talks with the Colombo government, officials said.
S. P. Thamilselvan, head of the political wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), will lead the rebel delegation heading to Switzerland, officials close to the peace process said.
The first face-to-face meet between the two sides in three years, during which Sri Lanka slipped dangerously back towards war, was due to begin in Geneva on Wednesday.
The two-day session was to focus on the Norwegian-brokered ceasefire that went into effect from February 23, 2002 but has yet to be fully implemented by both sides.
The truce came under pressure following a spike in violence in December, but the bloodshed was dramatically reduced after both sides agreed on January 25 to hold the talks.
The Geneva meeting arranged by peace broker Norway and hosted by Switzerland will be the first high-level contact between the two sides since the Tigers, who control large areas of the north and east of Sri Lanka, pulled out of peace talks in April 2003.
Four previous peace attempts had failed in the island nation, where more than 60,000 people have been killed in ethnic violence since 1972.
February 17, 2006
Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels are to leave for Geneva to attend crucial peace talks with the Colombo government, officials said.
S. P. Thamilselvan, head of the political wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), will lead the rebel delegation heading to Switzerland, officials close to the peace process said.
The first face-to-face meet between the two sides in three years, during which Sri Lanka slipped dangerously back towards war, was due to begin in Geneva on Wednesday.
The two-day session was to focus on the Norwegian-brokered ceasefire that went into effect from February 23, 2002 but has yet to be fully implemented by both sides.
The truce came under pressure following a spike in violence in December, but the bloodshed was dramatically reduced after both sides agreed on January 25 to hold the talks.
The Geneva meeting arranged by peace broker Norway and hosted by Switzerland will be the first high-level contact between the two sides since the Tigers, who control large areas of the north and east of Sri Lanka, pulled out of peace talks in April 2003.
Four previous peace attempts had failed in the island nation, where more than 60,000 people have been killed in ethnic violence since 1972.
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