Agence France Presse

Kandy, May 17:

Sri Lanka’s international donors held a second and final day of talks here today as they sought to nudge warring parties to share aid and rebuild the war- and tsunami-devastated nation.

Donors who have promised up to 2.5 billion dollars for tsunami-related reconstruction were keen that the Colombo government and Tamil Tiger rebels work together, a senior diplomat at the talks said. “We feel a joint mechanism (between the government and Tamil Tiger rebels) will make it quicker to deliver aid and also make it easier for donors to give more,” the Dutch ambassador to Sri Lanka, Susan Blankheart, said. She said European Union nations backed moves to swiftly establish a proposed “joint mechanism” that President Chandrika Kumaratunga promised Monday after saying she would do it even at the risk of her life.

Praful Patel, the World Bank’s vice president for South Asia, said donors were keen that Sri Lanka’s faltering peace process be revived and noted despite a talks deadlock, both sides have abided by a truce since February 2002. “For many development partners, the peace process is at the core of their interest in Sri Lanka,” Patel said, adding international lenders were also backing the initiative as it was the only way to ensure economic development.

The aid review was not meant as a pledging conference. But Sri Lanka’s Finance Minister Sarath Amunugama said donors and non-governmental agencies yesterday raised their help offers at the meeting.

Curfew after one killed

Colombo: Protesters lobbed a grenade at a shop in eastern Sri Lanka, killing one person and wounding four others, the military said. A curfew was imposed following the attack in Trincomalee, where police had been put on alert after another grenade blast on Monday damaged a Buddhist statue and injured one person. The town is 230 km northeast of the capital, Colombo. The protesters had gathered to demand that the statue be removed from the market square in the heart of the town, said S Bandara of the Trincomalee police. —AP