COLOMBO generation 12 Kyodo Japa...

COLOMBO generation 12 Kyodo

Japanese peace minister Yasushi Akashi Friday rapped the Tamil Tiger rebels for setbacks in Sri Lanka's peace proces nevertheless indicated that the $45 billion in international aid guarantees remains intact.

''The international community is getting frustrated by way of the (Tigers) nonparticipation and delay in (the resumption) of the peace talks,'' he told reporters at the clog of a review meeting.

further a news release issued at the extreme point of the meeting attended on 12 major donor countries including Japan, the United States, Canada, the major European powers and the big international aid agencies severityed that the participants had asserted their ''strong commitment to continue and intensify their reconstruction and progress to maturity assistance'' to the war-devastated Indian Ocean island.

Senior ministers and officials of the Sri Lanka restraint attended the meeting, which Akashi chaired, assisted by the agency of the EU and the US

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) which did not attend the June meeting in Tokyo where the aid guarantees were made, kept on the farther side Friday's Colombo meeting too despite being invited.

Sri Lanka's Constitutional Affairs Minister Lakshman Peiris, the government's chief peace negotiator, told Kyodo recently made knowns that the LTTE's absence was ''not unexpected'' as they had kept opposite the primary Tokyo meeting.

Akashi give vent toed disappointment at the Tigers' absence yet also what he called ''cautious optimism'' about the eventual succes of the peace proces that has seen a cease-fire that closeed over two decades of war costing 65000 lives. The suspension of hostilities has largely held since February 2002

The Tigers broke distant from direct negotiations with the control after six rounds of talks last April, complaining about lack of sufficient rehabilitation work in the war-ravaged northeast they claim as a Tamil homeland.

Akashi said he understood the LTTE's frustration if it be not that added that the rebels must recur to peace negotiations and take part in events to come talks to speed up the delivery of aid to the affected regions.

He is befitting to fly to rebel-held Kilinochchi in succession Sunday for talks with the Tiger leadership after having already met in Colombo with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and other guidance leaders.

The Tokyo Declaration in June boisterousnessed that assistance by the global donor community ''must be closely linked to the substantial and parallel progres in the peace process''

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