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COLOMBO, SRI LANKA, July 23, 2004: Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga has said all responsible for the July 1983 ethnic riots that sparked off a civil war in the country must apologize if the country is to move forward, Xinhua reports. “We should apologize to each other. There should be a public apology. It is only then that we can get the burden off our shoulders and take the country forward,” Kumaratunga was quoted Friday by the Daily News as saying while addressing a ceremony held in the central hilly city of Kandy.



To mark the 21st anniversary of the widespread ethnic riot between the country’s dominant Sinhalese and minority Tamils, the government has decided to pay compensation to the 937 victims of the violence. Kumaratunga, who is also the minister for relief, rehabilitation and reconciliation, will personally hand over compensation to 30 randomly selected recipients at a ceremony to be held at the President’s House to mark the anniversary of the ethnic riot. The government said all recipients who are resident in Sri Lanka will receive their compensation by the end of August and the government is in the process of contacting people now living abroad.



The government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels entered into a Norwegian-brokered ceasefire in February 2002 and both sides started direct peace talks seven months later. However, the LTTE pulled out of the talks in April last year after six rounds had been held. All efforts to revive the stalled peace talks have so far failed. More than 64,000 people have been killed in the past two decades of ethnic war between government troops and the guerrillas who wanted the setting up of an independent Tamil state in the country’s north and east.

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