Norway to host co-chairs meeting to stop violence in Sri Lanka

The Norwegian government will host a meeting of the Sri Lanka co-chairs on Friday in Oslo, Norway in a bid to bring the Sri Lankan government and the rebel Tamil Tigers to the negotiating table, the Norwegian embassy to Sri Lanka said Friday in a press release.

The meeting, chaired by Norwegian International Development Minister Erik Solheim, will also be attended by high-ranking representatives from the European Union, Japan and the United States.

The representatives will discuss what can be done to get the Sri Lankan government and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to respect the 2002 ceasefire agreement and continue with the peace process.

"I am extremely concerned about the recent upsurge in violence in Sri Lanka," Solheim was quoted by the press release as saying.

"The international community will now come together to discuss this serious situation. We strongly urge the parties to sit down together for talks in order to put a stop to the violence," Solheim said.

The security situation in Sri Lanka had been deteriorating after a LTTE suicide bomber exploded herself Tuesday in the Army headquarters in Colombo, killing nine people and injuring 27 others.

Army Commander Sarath Fonseka, the target of the suicide bombing, was seriously injured in the attack.

Following the suicide bombing, the government troops launched two rounds of air raids against targets of the LTTE in the eastern district of Trincomalee on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Media reports said thousands of local residents in Trincomalee had fled their homes amid the escalating violence.

The Sri Lankan government said Thursday that the "limited security forces operation" in the said area had been concluded and a Task Force had been formed to provide essential services to the affected people.

The recent upsurge in violence make analysts worry that the country might return to civil war, which killed more than 64,000 between mid 1980s to 2002 when the Norwegians brokered a ceasefire between the two parties.

Source: Xinhua