January 23, 2006

"Dismayed and concerned" about the "recent lethal escalation of armed violence" in the North and East of Sri Lanka, World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia wrote on 20 January to the country's president, Mahinda Rajapaksa.

In his letter, Kobia says that the WCC supports the Sri Lankan churches' call to the president, leaders of political parties and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE) "to take immediate steps to stop this spiral of violence and sit at the peace talks without delay."

Referring to a 2002 cease-fire agreement and subsequent peace talks between the government and the LTTE that ended over two decades of conflict, in which over 64,000 people lost their lives, the letter warns that "if the rapidly deteriorating situation is not brought under immediate control," another long-drawn-out war might be the result.

The full text of Kobia's letter is available (in English) on the WCC website at: http://www.oikoumene.org/Escalation_of_violence_in.1752.0.html.

World Council of Churches