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Peace envoy arrives for talks with Colombo

COLOMBO: Japanese peace envoy Yasushi Akashi arrived here on Sunday to hold talks with the Sri Lanka government on the escalation of hostilities in the island nation and to assess the impact of the decision of the government to withdraw from the 2002 Cease Fire Agreement (CFA).

It is the first high profile visit by any foreign dignitary to Sri Lanka after Colombo gave on January 3 the mandatory 14-day notice to Norway, the official facilitator of peace talks, to withdraw from the CFA.

The arrival of Mr. Akashi coincided with a strongly-worded statement by the Tokyo Co-Chairs of Sri Lanka (Norway, Japan, U.S. and the E.U.) backing continuation of Norway’s role as the official peace facilitator as well as asking the government to provide the Co-Chairs and Norway access to the LTTE in Kilinochchi. The Co-Chairs have also called for “continued monitoring of the human rights situation by such means as to assure an appropriate role for the U.N.” Colombo has, so far, not formally reacted to the Co-Chairs’ statement and in the past, has ruled out a U.N. mission to monitor human rights violations.

A statement issued by the Japanese embassy here merely said that Mr. Akashi will assess “the current situation of the peace process and its future”. In the course of his three-day visit, he is expected to call on President Mahinda Rajapaksa, among others.

On Sunday, the military claimed that at least 29 cadres of the Tigers were killed in clashes. A statement by the Defence Ministry said that two soldiers were also killed while three others sustained wounds.

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