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Britain, France fail to
secure Sri Lanka truce
COLOMBO: The foreign minis-
ters of Britain and France said
yesterday they had failed to
persuade Sri Lanka to end its of-
fensive against Tamil rebels and
allow aid in for civilians trapped
by the fighting.
“We tried very hard – we
insisted and we insisted – but it
is up to our friends to allow it
or not,” French Foreign Minister
Bernard Kouchner told a news
conference after talks with the
Sri Lankan government.
British Foreign Secretary
David Miliband also said the
talks had ended without a
breakthrough.
“Now is the time for the
fighting to stop,” Miliband said,
but later admitted to the BBC
that “there isn’t going to be a
ceasefire today as a result of
this visit”.
“This does belong on the United
Nations Security Council agenda.
This is a civil war that does have
regional and wider ramifications,
and happens to be a massive civil-
ian emergency as well,” he said.
Sri Lanka’s leaders say they
are on the cusp of victory after 37
years of violence, with the rebels
cornered and outnumbered in a
small strip of coastal jungle in
the northeast of the island.
Government officials have ar-
gued that any truce would only
allow the rebels to regroup.
But at the centre of global
concern are some 50,000 Tamil
civilians who the UN says are
unable to escape the fighting.
A UN document circulated
among diplomats in Colombo
last week said that as many
as 6,500 civilians may have
been killed and another 14,000
wounded in the government’s
offensive so far this year.
Sri Lanka has for months
blocked most aid agencies from
working in the conflict zone,
and has herded 110,000 fleeing
civilians into overcrowded camps
which are guarded by the military.
Kouchner and Miliband vis-
ited one camp near the northern
town of Vavuniya yesterday,
where Tamils told them of rela-
tives who had been arrested in-
side what the government calls
“welfare villages”.
Kouchner told AFP that “this
camp is good, the rest must be
awful” referring to the severe
shortage of food, shelter and
medical essentials reported at
other camps.
In the latest fighting, Sri
Lanka’s navy said that it sank six
rebel boats and killed at least
REUTERSPIX
25 guerrillas in a pre-dawn sea
battle yesterday. – AFP
Pakistan troops seize control
of key town in Buner
PESHAWAR: Pakistani troops yes-
terday took control of the key town
in northwestern Buner district, a
day after launching a major ground
and air assault against Taliban
Soldiers militants, the military said.
stand guard “We have taken control of Da-
at a post in gar town and an operation by the
Pakistan’s ground forces is under way,” said
Lower Dir a senior military officer.
district “Early morning yesterday heli-
yesterday. borne forces successfully landed at
Dagar and surrounding areas and
secured Dagar, headquarters of
Buner district,” the military added
in a statement. The army and para-
military Frontier Corps troops were
involved in the operation.
Pakistan troops launched an
operation in the Buner district
near the Swat valley on Tuesday,
in an intensified effort to flush out
Taliban militants. Chief military
spokesman Major General Athar
Abbas said fighter jets had also
been used in Tuesday’s operation.
Dagar, a town of about 25,000, is
the administrative centre of Buner.
The latest operation by the Paki-
stani military follows an offensive
mounted in nearby Lower Dir over
the weekend that has swelled the
number of people displaced by fight-
ing in northwest Pakistan, prompt-
ing calls for humanitarian help by
local officials and aid workers.
The United States, which has
put Pakistan at the heart of the bat-
tle against terrorism and Al Qaeda,
hailed the military operations as
“exactly the appropriate response”
theSun | THURSDAY APRIL 30 2009
to halt the Taliban’s progress,
Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell
said.
“We are encouraging of these
efforts,” Morrell said. “We hope
they can sustain these operations.”
The United States has been
pushing for Islamabad to crack
down on the Taliban, insisting that
Islamist extremists, historically
supported by Pakistani intelligence,
pose the greatest threat to the nu-
clear-armed country and not arch
rival India.
The offensive mounted in Lower
Dir, in which 70-75 militants and
10 security personnel died, has
now been completed, Abbas said
on Tuesday. The Dir military of-
fensive has led to the displacement
of around 30,000 people, said Mian
Iftikhar Hussain, information min-
ister in the government of North
West Frontier Province (NWFP).
The operation in Buner has been
mounted to stem Taliban efforts to
encroach into regions beyond Swat.
In February, the government agreed
that Islamic syariah law could be
enforced in Swat and its surrounding
districts in a deal aimed at ending
two years of rebellion during which
followers of radical cleric Maulana
Fazlullah beheaded opponents and
torched girls’ schools. – AFP