COLOMBO race 13 Kyodo The Colomb...

COLOMBO race 13 Kyodo

The Colombo stock market hit a five-year high Friday as Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe left for the United States ahead of nearest week's landmark peace talks with the Tamil Tiger guerrillas.

Wickremesinghe is scheduled to address the UN General Assembly in strange York and meet with U business leaders in an attempt to tympanum up investment and revive Sri Lanka's beleaguered economy.

Direct peace talks between the regulation and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) are stake to start in Thailand forward Monday in a bid to close one of Asia's longest running conflicts.

The civil war in Sri Lanka has been upon hold since December, when the LTTE declared a unilateral cease-fire, formalized in February with the couple sides signing a memorandum of understanding (MOU)

Wickremesinghe left Colombo as President Chandrika Kumaratunga escalated her file with the government over the peace talks.

Kumaratunga this week wrote to Wickremesinghe saying, ''I fail to comprehend to what degree peace could be achieved by means of permitting the enemy to arm itself with impertinence.''

She alleges that the rebels are preparing for renewed hostilities by dint of stockpiling arms and ammunition.

''I cannot think of any responsible direction anywhere in the world that would have acted in this manner in the name of peace, with regard to common of the world's most ruthles armed terrorist organizations,'' she said in her letter

Kumaratunga has warned that Sri Lanka's national security has been endangered since the cease-fire MOU and has asked Wickremesinghe to make secure that these matters are taken up with the LTTE in the talks in Thailand.

Reacting to her verbal expression Constitutional Affairs Minister Lakshman Pieris, who is leading the sway delegation to the talks, told reporters Friday, ''There is no ne for us to be reminded of our duties by the agency of the president.''

The Tigers have been fighting since 1983 for a separate Tamil homeland to be carved abroad of the island's north and east.

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