Norway perturbed, urges Colombo, LTTE to attend Geneva talks

Colombo, Apr 11 (UNI) Concerned over the future of peace talks between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tiger rebels in the backdrop of serial mine blasts and truce related violence, the Norwegian facilitators today urged both the parties to attend the direct peace talks in Geneva scheduled for April 19.

''I strongly urge both parties to meet in Geneva on April 19-21 as planned. This meeting will provide an opportunity for finding ways to implement the ceasefire agreement and the promises the parties made in their previous meetings,'' top Norwegian peace envoy and Minister for International Development Erik Solheim said in a statement released this evening.

His statement came barely a few hours after the huge Claymore mine explosion in the eastern Trincomalee district leaving at least 12 naval sailors killed and eight more wounded.

A vehicle carrying foreigners too got engulfed in the blast and two British nationals were wounded. This is the second Claymore attack on the government security forces during the last twenty-four hours in Sri Lanka's restive North-East region.

It was only on Saturday evening that five Sri Lankan army personnel and two civilian aid workers were killed in a claymore blast in the northern Jaffna peninsula.

Today's mine blast coincided with the funeral of a pro-LTTE Tamil nationalist, Vanniasingham Vigneswaran, who was gunned down by unknown gunmen on Friday morning while he was on his way to a state bank in the heavily-guarded Trincomalee town.

Condemning the latest acts of violence in Sri Lanka's north-east ''in the strongest possible terms'', Mr Solheim said, ''these attacks must be seen against the backdrop of other serious acts of violence during the last few days''.

''The assassination of a prominent Tamil civil society representative in Trincomalee, Mr V Vigneswaran, and other serious incidents are adding to the vortex of violence that could eventually create a situation similar to that in December 2005 and January this year," the Norwegian statement said.

UNI XC DKS MSJ VC2300