Major donors engaged in efforts to end Sri Lanka's civil war condemned the government and Tamil rebels alike on Tuesday for human rights abuses and systematic violations of a 2002 cease-fire.
Senior diplomats from the United States, European Union, Japan and Norway issued a statement expressing "alarm" at the ongoing fighting that they said has led to "significant loss of life and widespread human rights violations".
"We condemn the continued and systematic cease-fire violations by the government of Sri Lanka as well as by the LTTE," said the statement, read out by US Under-secretary of State Nicholas Burns and referring to the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam movement.
The four-party group went on to "particularly condemn the LTTE for initiating hostilities from populated areas, and the government of Sri Lanka for firing into such vulnerable areas and killing and wounding innocent civilians".
They called on both sides to set up demilitarised zones to protect civilians displaced by the fighting and "depoliticise" the humanitarian issue by opening up sea and road routes for relief convoys.
More than 3,300 people have been killed in the past year in fighting between government forces and the Tamil Tigers, confounding efforts brokered by Norway to revive a truce agreed in February 2002 following 30 years of civil war that left more than 60,000 dead.
Peace talks between the government and Tamil Tiger rebels collapsed in Geneva last month as the authorities resisted Tiger demands to open a key highway to the Jaffna Peninsula, virtually cut off since fighting erupted in mid-August.
The office of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse said on Sunday that he had ordered the opening of the highway amid concern for half a million civilians trapped there, but the Tamils called it a political gimmick ahead of the donors meeting.
The United States, Japan, the EU and Norway, who have tied 4.5 billion dollars of aid to Sri Lanka to progress on a peace settlement, welcomed Colombo's readiness to send a relief convoy via the A-9 highway and allow international groups immediate access to restart their relief work.
The Tamil Tigers were urged by the quartet, known as the "co-chairs," to "cooperate with such initiatives."
"The critical factor now is access," said Erik Solheim, Norway's aid minister and chief peace-broker for Sri Lanka.
Noting the October failed peace talks, the co-chairs called on Colombo and the Tamil Tigers to commit to a "structured and sustained process of further negotiations without preconditions once a proposal is available."
"We are impatient to see some concrete results," Japanese special envoy Yasushi Akashi said.
"Even more impatient than us, we believe, are the different people of Sri Lanka. They are suffering from this present atmosphere of fear," Solheim said, citing "disappearances" and civilians getting caught in crossfire.
The four-party group reminded the Sri Lankan government and Tamil Tigers to implement the cease-fire agreement fully and guarantee the security of the Norwegian monitors, who were reportedly fired on by government forces earlier this month.