Sri Lanka Army Commander Lt. Gen. G.S.C Fonseka, due for retirement this year, has claimed that he would not leave the war to his succeeding commander, at a New Year party hosted by him on January 11 to select local and international journalists at his residence at Bauddhaloka Mawatha in Colombo.

 

Fonseka was being tactfully upbeat as news of an explosion inside Fort Railway station threatened to dampen spirits at the cocktail party.

On January 16, Maj.

The Japanese peace envoy to Sri Lanka, Yasushi Akashi, has said that the breakdown of the ceasefire may make it necessary to review Tokyo's aid.

 

Mr Akashi said he was worried that the end of the ceasefire may lead to more violence and more civilian casualties.

 

Japan is Sri Lanka's largest foreign donor, giving about $9bn in grants, loans and aid since 1985, including around $400m in 2007.

A joint statement signed by the Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom and India, at the UK-India annual Summit held in New Delhi Monday, said they agreed that there is no military solution to the conflict in Sri Lanka and urged the Sri Lankan government to put forward a credible devolution package as a key contribution to finding a political settlement acceptable to all communities within the framework of a united Sri Lanka.

As the 2002 ceasefire agreement came to an end, having been unilaterally abrogated by Sri Lanka’s militaristic government, and in the midst of the ongoing targeting of civilians in the Vanni, the conflict spread south, claiming over 40 casualties in two days in the central district of Moneragala, east of the capital Colombo.

 

On the day the ceasefire agreement ended, a roadside bomb ripped through a bus killing 27 people and wounding dozens in the town of Buttala

The international community reacted to the bombing of a bus in the central district of Moneragala, with the US condemning the blasts and the United Nations calling for dialogue as the only way to stop further violence.

 

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon “strongly condemned” the attacks targeting buses in Sri Lanka, killing and injuring dozens – including children – and coinciding with the formal end of a truce between the Government and the Liberation Tigers.

Sri Lanka's recovery from the devastating tsunami of December 2004 has been uneven.

 

Rehabilitation work has notched up significant successes in the Sinhalese-dominated and more peaceful south, but it has suffered greatly in the war-torn northeast, which has a preponderance of the minority Tamils and Muslims.