| Sri Lanka rejects tamil tiger ceasefire for South Asia summit |
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Sri Lanka's government has rejected a unilateral ceasefire announced by the country's separatist Tamil Tigers. The rebels say they declared the 10-day truce as a gesture of goodwill, to coincide with a summit of South Asia leaders beginning in Colombo at the weekend. But the government is refusing to abide by the ceasefire, and says military raids on rebel positions are continuing.
Earlier, government officials said they had not received an official ceasefire notification from the rebels and were sceptical about the declaration. "You have to look at it historically, there has been a tendency to have a ceasefire in order to build up their strength," said Rajiva Wijesinha, Secretary General of the Sri Lanka Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process. The long-running conflict is now concentrated in the north after the Sri Lankan army, which has vowed to finish off the Tigers this year, drove the rebels from their eastern enclave in 2007. Sri Lanka's 2002 Norwegian-backed ceasefire pact with the Tamil Tigers formally ended in January after the government decided to scrap it, arguing that the rebels were using it to buy time to regroup and rearm. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have been fighting for an independent homeland for minority Tamils since 1972, and the conflict has left tens of thousands dead. Sri Lanka hosts the 10-day gathering of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) later this month. SAARC groups Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka. Source : http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/news/stories/200807/s2311426.htm?tab=latest |
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