The Sri Lankan government and Tamil rebels said a suicide explosion off the coast of the war-ravaged country would not derail the fragile peace process as they sat down for face-to-face talks. The rebels from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) died Friday when they blew up their boat off the Jaffna peninsula after truce monitors found a heavy machine gun and ammunition on board in violation of a year-long ceasefire. The incident came hours ahead of the opening in Berlin of a fifth round of peace talks aimed at building confidence and finding a solution to one of Asia’s longest and most brutal civil wars. Government and rebel officials here were quick to reaffirm their commitment to dialogue and blame the incident — the worst violation to date of the truce struck in February — on an “apparent communication failure”. Full Story