Caritas International hosts "Peace Forum" in Sri Lanka

(29 June 2006) : A first-ever "Peace Forum" organized by Caritas International ended on Wednesday 28 June in Colombo, Sri Lanka, with the charity workers urging the Tamil rebels and the Sri Lankan government to observe a ceasefire agreement to halt the escalating violence. "Our condolences go out to all those who have lost their loved ones in acts of extreme violence in recent weeks and many thousands who have suffered through the long history of this conflict," said the concluding statement from the June 26-28 Caritas forum, which was attended by 70 foreign delegates. In the apparent breakdown of a 2002 ceasefire, which had brought the protracted ethnic violence in Sri Lanka to a temporary halt, 562 civilians have been killed in 2006, along with dozens of combatants from government security forces and the Tamil rebels known as Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE). While Sinhala-speaking Buddhists account for nearly 70% of the island nation's 19 million people, the ethnic Tamils account for 17%. Christians and Muslims account for the remainder of the population.