Donors warn Lanka of running war risks

Key foreign financial backers of Sri Lanka took the unusual step of pressing President Chandrika Kumaratunga last week to rein in Marxist ally the JVP (People's Liberation Front), accusing it of undermining the peace process.

"The donors have been quite unhappy with the JVP," an Asian diplomatic source said. "It came to a head when the JVP asked (peace broker) Norway to get out. That is why the donors came out strongly against the JVP."

Foreign governments and multilateral agencies who in June last year pledged 4.5 billion dollars in aid were impatient with the JVP for writing a letter asking for Norway's withdrawal, diplomats said.

"The message to the president is loud and clear," an official source said. "If Norway quits, there will be war. War is not an option for the president."

After talks with Norway's special peace envoy Erik Solheim here Thursday, the president's office said she "regretted that certain statements and actions had not helped to create a climate of mutual confidence."

The statement did not elaborate what "statements and actions" she was referring to, but diplomatic sources said it was a reference to the JVP which had referred to the Tigers' leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, as a "latter-day Hitler".

"The actual barriers to peace, however, come not from us, but from the latter-day Hitler ...," the JVP said in a letter to diplomats who complained about the party.

Western diplomats said the donors' warning was given added importance by an endorsement from Japan, which accounts for 45 percent of foreign assistance to Colombo.