EU urges Lanka to offer rebels 'substantive devolution'

A Sri Lankan army soldier stands guard at the site of a roadside bomb attack at Ja-Ela, a suburb of Colombo yesterday. Sri Lankan Minister of Nation Building DM Dassanayake was killed and 10 others wounded in a powerful roadside bomb attack by suspected Tamil Tiger rebels near the island's capital. Photo: AFP

The European Union on Monday called on the Sri Lankan government to offer "substantive devolution" to Tamil rebels as fierce fighting, renewed since Colombo scrapped a ceasefire, claimed more victims.
The Slovenian EU presidency voiced deep regret at the Sri Lankan government's decision to end the truce with the rebel Tamil Tigers, saying the decision further exacerbates an already violent situation.
"The EU calls upon the government of Sri Lanka to come forward with a substantive devolution offer around which negotiations can start, as soon as possible," the presidency said in a statement.
"For an arrangement to serve as a feasible basis for negotiations, it needs to go beyond past offers and the EU urges both parties to work towards a solution that would bring a peaceful and lasting resolution to the conflict."
Earlier Sri Lanka Monday took exception to a statement by Nordic nations, which voiced distress over the situation in the Indian ocean island, where the government abrogated an Oslo-arranged truce.
The foreign ministers of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland said in a joint statement last week that they were "deeply concerned about the worsening situation in Sri Lanka."
The remarks followed Colombo's decision to withdraw from a 2002 ceasefire on January 16. Quitting the truce sparked fears of further violence in a country where 6,000 people have been killed in fighting between rebels and government soldiers in the past two years.
The Sri Lankan government said the Scandinavian statement was unhelpful and could lead to further polarisation of the ethnically divided nation, where Tamil Tiger rebels are fighting for full independence.
"The continuing good faith of the government of Sri Lanka received no plaudits from Scandinavia," the government's Peace Secretariat said in a statement.
"Continuing acts of terror by the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) received no criticism."