Tigers Pull Out Of Peace Talks
Reuters
April 15, 2006
BATTICALOA, Sri Lanka - The Tamil Tigers said on Saturday they were pulling out of peace talks with the Sri Lankan government, triggering fears the island could plunge back into a two-decade old civil war.
The Tigers said their withdrawal from scheduled talks in Geneva aimed at saving a faltering 2002 ceasefire was due to problems with the requested safe-conduct transport of rebel commanders.
The Tigers were concerned about Sri Lankan navy plans to monitor a boat that was to have taken the commanders based in the east and their Nordic escorts on Saturday to the Tigers' northern base, the head of the Tiger peace secretariat said.
"It is very important we meet our commanders," S. Puleedevan said. "We have canceled the transport. If we cannot meet them, Geneva is off."
Swedish Major-General Ulf Henricsson, head of the unarmed Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission tasked with monitoring the truce, said the Tigers had agreed to allow the navy to monitor the rebel vessel from a distance.
If the rebels did not know that, they had not read the paperwork properly, he said.
"I'm worried about the situation for Sri Lankan people of all ethnic groups," Henricsson told Reuters outside the monitoring mission's eastern Batticaloa office, as a road convoy to pick up the rebel commanders prepared to depart.
"Those in positions of responsibility on either side are not acting in the interests of their people."
On Friday, the government had agreed to postpone next week's scheduled peace talks in Geneva until April 24-25, after the Tigers demanded that their eastern commanders be given a helicopter flight or safe-conduct in Sea Tiger vessels to the de facto rebel capital, Kilinochchi.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) waged a two-decade war to win a Tamil homeland in the island's north and east in which more than 64,000 were killed on both sides.
Shortly after the Tigers said they would not go to Switzerland, the Sri Lanka army and the rebels accused each other of attacks.
The army said a claymore fragmentation mine fixed to a tractor and exploded by remote control killed five soldiers and wounded seven at an air force camp near Vavuniya, just beyond the southern fringes of rebel territory in the island's north.
The Tigers said a Sri Lankan army fragmentation mine killed a rebel cadre and a civilian in Mannar district in the northwest.
The series of attacks, along with rising ethnic violence, have killed more than 40 people, leading many to fear a return to civil war.
ETHNIC RIOTS
The rebels have accused the government of being behind ethnic riots this week in which several Tamils died. These followed suspected rebel attacks in the northeastern town of Trincomalee, one of the few places where large populations of Tamils, Muslims and the island's Sinhalese majority co-exist.
Earlier on Saturday, the army said it had foiled another claymore mine attack. "Last night, troops arrested an LTTE cadre with two claymore mines," an army spokesman said. "His purpose was to lay the claymore mines and attack army troops."
Claymores, blocks of plastic explosive that blast out a hail of steel ball bearings, have frequently been used in ambushes blamed on the Tigers.
"I believe these attacks are intended to destabilise and demoralize," said Palitha Kohona, head of the government peace secretariat, late on Friday.
The army said suspected rebels had also killed a member of an anti-Tiger Tamil political party, a government ally of President Mahinda Rajapakse, in the eastern army-held town of Batticaloa.
The island is being pushed to the brink of war for the second time this year. In January, fighters on both sides believed war was imminent until violence fell after the Tigers agreed to the first round of Geneva talks.
In the east, the Tigers are facing off not just against the military but also against breakaway ex-rebels led by former Tiger commander Karuna Amman. The rebels say Karuna's group has government backing. The army denies the charge.
Rebel demands for Karuna to be disarmed had been expected to figure prominently at the Geneva talks. Colombo denies he is operating in government areas, but the name of his fledgling political party, the TVMP, is scrawled in red on almost every lamp-post in Batticaloa town.
April 15, 2006
BATTICALOA, Sri Lanka - The Tamil Tigers said on Saturday they were pulling out of peace talks with the Sri Lankan government, triggering fears the island could plunge back into a two-decade old civil war.
The Tigers said their withdrawal from scheduled talks in Geneva aimed at saving a faltering 2002 ceasefire was due to problems with the requested safe-conduct transport of rebel commanders.
The Tigers were concerned about Sri Lankan navy plans to monitor a boat that was to have taken the commanders based in the east and their Nordic escorts on Saturday to the Tigers' northern base, the head of the Tiger peace secretariat said.
"It is very important we meet our commanders," S. Puleedevan said. "We have canceled the transport. If we cannot meet them, Geneva is off."
Swedish Major-General Ulf Henricsson, head of the unarmed Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission tasked with monitoring the truce, said the Tigers had agreed to allow the navy to monitor the rebel vessel from a distance.
If the rebels did not know that, they had not read the paperwork properly, he said.
"I'm worried about the situation for Sri Lankan people of all ethnic groups," Henricsson told Reuters outside the monitoring mission's eastern Batticaloa office, as a road convoy to pick up the rebel commanders prepared to depart.
"Those in positions of responsibility on either side are not acting in the interests of their people."
On Friday, the government had agreed to postpone next week's scheduled peace talks in Geneva until April 24-25, after the Tigers demanded that their eastern commanders be given a helicopter flight or safe-conduct in Sea Tiger vessels to the de facto rebel capital, Kilinochchi.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) waged a two-decade war to win a Tamil homeland in the island's north and east in which more than 64,000 were killed on both sides.
Shortly after the Tigers said they would not go to Switzerland, the Sri Lanka army and the rebels accused each other of attacks.
The army said a claymore fragmentation mine fixed to a tractor and exploded by remote control killed five soldiers and wounded seven at an air force camp near Vavuniya, just beyond the southern fringes of rebel territory in the island's north.
The Tigers said a Sri Lankan army fragmentation mine killed a rebel cadre and a civilian in Mannar district in the northwest.
The series of attacks, along with rising ethnic violence, have killed more than 40 people, leading many to fear a return to civil war.
ETHNIC RIOTS
The rebels have accused the government of being behind ethnic riots this week in which several Tamils died. These followed suspected rebel attacks in the northeastern town of Trincomalee, one of the few places where large populations of Tamils, Muslims and the island's Sinhalese majority co-exist.
Earlier on Saturday, the army said it had foiled another claymore mine attack. "Last night, troops arrested an LTTE cadre with two claymore mines," an army spokesman said. "His purpose was to lay the claymore mines and attack army troops."
Claymores, blocks of plastic explosive that blast out a hail of steel ball bearings, have frequently been used in ambushes blamed on the Tigers.
"I believe these attacks are intended to destabilise and demoralize," said Palitha Kohona, head of the government peace secretariat, late on Friday.
The army said suspected rebels had also killed a member of an anti-Tiger Tamil political party, a government ally of President Mahinda Rajapakse, in the eastern army-held town of Batticaloa.
The island is being pushed to the brink of war for the second time this year. In January, fighters on both sides believed war was imminent until violence fell after the Tigers agreed to the first round of Geneva talks.
In the east, the Tigers are facing off not just against the military but also against breakaway ex-rebels led by former Tiger commander Karuna Amman. The rebels say Karuna's group has government backing. The army denies the charge.
Rebel demands for Karuna to be disarmed had been expected to figure prominently at the Geneva talks. Colombo denies he is operating in government areas, but the name of his fledgling political party, the TVMP, is scrawled in red on almost every lamp-post in Batticaloa town.
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