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Sri Lanka's President urges Tamils to persuade rebels to join talks
Sri Lanka's President Chandrika Kumaratunga has urged minority Tamils in the embattled northern peninsula of Jaffna to help bring Tamil Tiger rebels to the negotiating table.
In a video conference with residents in Jaffna, Mrs Kumaratunga said the Norwegian-backed peace process had been held up due to new demands put forward by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam guerrillas.
The President said her government was committed to a peaceful solution to the long-running conflict which has claimed more than 60-thousand lives in the past two decades.
Norway's special envoy, Erik Solheim, has arrived in Colombo for talks with President Kumaratunga and other leaders in a bid to revive the peace process.
More than 410 combatants on both sides have been killed in four days of fierce fighting which ended on Saturday in the Jaffna peninsula.
2/05/01 22:01:30 | ABC Radio Australia News
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