Sri Lanka Receives Weapons from CzechSri Lanka received a shipment of weapons worth about 2.5 million US dollars from the Czech Republic on Monday amid hopes that peace talks might start soon, a military spokesman said.According to military spokesman Sanath Karunaratne, the weapons included multi-barrel rocket launchers, tanks, tank transporters and other military vehicles. The spokesman said that the timing of the weapon shipment had nothing to do with Norwegian-brokered peace initiatives in the war- torn country. The government has said that it will announce a date for talks with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels by the end of this month. Czech, a key supplier of military weapons to Sri Lanka, also provided the country with multi-barrel rocket launchers in April last year which helped government forces stall a major offensive launched by the LTTE rebels in the north of the country. Government forces are observing their four-day New Year truce which began midnight on Friday and due to end early coming Tuesday. The LTTE rebels started their unilateral ceasefire on Christmas eve last year and extended their truce monthly ever since then. The rebels have been fighting against government forces since 1983 for a separatist Tamil homeland in the north and east of the country. |
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