Japanese peace envoy travels to Sri Lanka

A top Japanese peace envoy said today he would travel to northern Sri Lanka to confer with Tamil Tiger rebels despite reports that the insurgents’ chief has rejected any meeting with the envoy.

Envoy Yasushi Akashi said he would travel to Kilinochchi, the de-facto rebel capital tomorrow, after meeting today with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse in Colombo.

Security forces today clamped down on the Tamil-dominated Jaffna Peninsula to guard against anti-government demonstrations after the rebels accused the military of involvement in the reported disappearance of eight Tamil men from a Hindu temple in Jaffna over the weekend.

The military said the main highway linking government-held territory with the northern region controlled by the rebels had been closed after a curfew was imposed that also bars residents of the peninsula from coming out of their homes.

In today’s meeting, Akashi and Rajapakse discussed ways to get the rebels back to peace talks in Geneva, a senior official in Rajapakse’s government said.

The insurgents last month refused to participate in further talks amid spiralling violence.

There was no formal statement on the talks between Akashi and Rajapakse.

Akashi said he has read newspaper reports that top Tiger leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran would not meet him.

“I am going to Kilinochchi tomorrow anyway and going to find out whom I can meet,” he told reporters after meeting with Rajapakse.

Renewed fighting between the rebels and government forces in recent weeks has threatened to re-ignite a civil war that cost 65,000 lives before a ceasefire brought a brief respite to the bloodshed in 2002.

Japan is Sri Lanka’s largest aid donor and has taken an interest in building peace on the island nation, where violence has left more than 150 people dead since April.

In the latest violence, the rebels said eight Tamil men were abducted after being shot in a temple in Jaffna city. The rebels blamed the Sri Lankan army for the incident, which the military denied.

The Liberation Tiger of Tamil Eelam said on their website the men, who were sleeping in the temple, had gone missing.

Blood stains in the temple suggested they had either been killed or wounded before being taken away, the website said.

The army denied any involvement and there was no independent confirmation of the incident.

Police imposed the curfew after pro-rebel groups said they would hold demonstrations against the latest round of killings and alleged abductions.

The curfew does not apply in rebel-held territory such as Kilinochchi, where the rebels usually hold meeting with foreign dignitaries.

The rebels are demanding a homeland for the Tamil minority, claiming discrimination by the ethnic Sinhalese majority. The current government won an election last year with a pledge to maintain a single state.