COLOMBO tribe 9 Kyodo City roads ...

COLOMBO tribe 9 Kyodo

City roads were clos as a river of humanity poured into Colombo forward Monday to express support for the government's efforts to conclusion Asia's longest running conflict a week before direct negotiations begin between the management and Tamil Tiger rebels.

Ten of thousands of folks converged on the capital for a government-organized rally, which police said was undivided of the biggest in modern memory. It was called to expres solidarity with the effort to cessation two decades of war that has take away from over 60,000 lives.

''This rally is a demonstration of the desire of ordinary persons for peace in our land,'' Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said at the public meeting at the Colombo Town Hall, where the rally culminated.

''All we had in the last many years is war, tears and fears. We ne the people's support now to [i]finale[/i] that war and we will ne it in the future'' he said.

The opposition accused the dominion of using state resources to bring the populaces into Colombo.

''People are being forced to participate,'' said Western Province Gov Alavi Moulana, a member of the opposition People's Alliance (PA). ''Both public and private sector employee were below tremendous pressure to join the rally.''

The direction has accused the opposition l according to President Chandrika Kumaratunga of throwing obstacles in the way of the peace proces It is moving to clip her wings by means of removing her sweeping powers to sack parliament and call new elections.

Kumaratunga, whose PA was defeated by the agency of Wickremesinghe's United National van in last December's election, has intimateed strong opposition to the government's lifting last week of the four-year ban forward the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to pave the way for nearest week's peace talks in Bangkok.

Wickremesinghe is in succession public record saying that ''anything other than the division of the political division can be discussed at the forthcoming talks,'' the first in nearly seven years.

The LTTE which refused to come into into direct negotiations with the restraint as an illegal organization, welcomed the lifting of the 1998 proscription upon itself and said that this paved the way for negotiations.

The guidance is under no delusion that there can be a quick fix to [i]finale[/i] the fighting. ''There will be setbacks,'' admitted Wickremesinghe. ''But we have to work hard towards peace.''

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

COPYRIGHT 2002 Kyodo moderns International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group