Japan cautious on Sri Lanka military breakthrough
[ AFP ]
Japan, Sri Lanka’s top donor, was cautious on Monday after the Tamil Tiger rebels’ capital fell, with an official saying that only a political solution could resolve the island’s ethnic war. Sri Lanka’s army last week captured the de facto rebel capital Kilinochchi and said it was now closing in on the headquarters of the Tigers, who have been fighting since 1972 to set up an independent homeland for the Tamil minority. Japan provides nearly two-thirds of Sri Lanka’s international aid and has sent its special envoy four times in the past three years to try to broker an end to the conflict, which has claimed tens of thousands of lives.