COLOMBO (AFP)--Japan's peace envoy opened talks in Sri Lanka on Sunday, hinting international donors may hold back much-needed foreign aid if the island's decades-long ethnic conflict escalates, officials said.
Yasushi Akashi, who arrived in Sri Lanka for three days of crucial talks on Sunday, met the Marxist JVP, the main left party, for an hour-long discussion, the party said in a statement.
"While Japan and other international donors give a lot of aid to Sri Lanka, Mr Akashi indicated that donors may call off aid, given the current ground situation," the JVP said.
Tokyo is the biggest bilateral aid giver to Sri Lanka, which is battling a 36- year-old Tamil separatist conflict that has claimed more than 60,000 lives since 1972.
Finance ministry figures here show that Japan gave nearly $200 million to Sri Lanka between January and September last year.
Akashi's visit comes amidst mounting bloodshed since the government decided this month to pull out of a tattered Norway-brokered 2002 truce with the Tamil Tiger rebels.
The envoy will not travel to the rebel-held areas in the north for talks with the guerillas, but will meet with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse and other government officials, the Japanese embassy here said.
Ahead of his visit, Sri Lanka's army beefed up security in cities across the island, deploying troops in public places including in the capital Colombo, which has been rocked by several deadly blasts this month.
"We have given special attention to security in schools and public places where more people tend to gather," military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said.
Police have also imported $33,000 worth of explosive detectors to be deployed at check points and busy public areas, police chief Victor Perera said Sunday.
He said police were looking at installing closed circuit television systems at key points in Colombo.
Heavy fighting across Sri Lanka's northern frontier continued, leaving at least 29 rebels dead over the weekend, the military said Sunday, placing their own losses at two soldiers killed and eight injured.
Some 361 rebels and 13 troops have been killed so far this month, according to military figures.
Tokyo and the island's other major donors on Saturday voiced concern over Colombo's decision to scrap the truce, saying they feared it would lead to more bloodshed and stall peace efforts.
The financial backers, who include the U.S., the E.U. and Norway, also sought access to meet the Tigers in their rebel-held territories in the north and urged Colombo to allow a U.N. presence to monitor rights abuses.
There was no immediate comment from the government. Sri Lanka has repeatedly rejected previous calls for a U.N. rights mission here.
In Saturday's joint statement, the donor quartet urged warring parties to protect civilians and allow humanitarian agencies access to people in need.
Sri Lanka announced it would formally pull out of the six-year truce on Jan. 16, saying the guerrillas had used the ceasefire as a cover to rearm, recruit and attack troops.
However, the Tamil Tigers said last week that it was "shocked and disappointed" by the Sri Lankan government's decision and appealed to Norway, which brokered the truce, to remain engaged.
Source:NASDAQ/AFP
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