Japan's special peace envoy on Sri Lanka's peace process with the Tamil Tiger rebels arrived in the capital Colombo on Sunday, officials said.
Yasushi Akashi, who was making his 15th visit to the island country since being appointed peace envoy in Oct. 2002, touched down at 8:10 a.m. local time (0250 GMT), officials added.
His visit came in the wake of Sri Lankan government's unilateral decision to withdraw from the Norwegian-backed truce between the government and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
During his three-day visit, Akashi would hold talks with the President Mahinda Rajapakse and the main opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe on the situation emerging from the decision to abrogate the truce, officials said.
The visit came a day after Norway, Japan, U.S. and European Union in a joint statement urged the Sri Lankan government to look for a negotiated political settlement to end the island's escalating separatist armed conflict.
More than 70,000 people died in the conflict since the mid-1980s. The LTTE has been fighting the government troops to create a separate homeland for the minority Tamils in the north and eastern provinces.
Source:Xinhua
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