Tigers Vow Reprisals As Sri Lanka Launches New Strikes
Reuters
April 26, 2006
COLOMBO - Sri Lanka's military launched air and artillery strikes on Tamil Tiger areas in the island's northeast on Wednesday, a day after a suicide bomb attack blamed on the rebels shattered an already fragile ceasefire.
Military spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe said the latest strikes came after the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) fired on naval patrol craft off the eastern port of Trincomalee for a second day.
The rebels said they would retaliate if the government continued the attacks, launched after a suspected Tiger suicide bomb in the capital killed nine and wounded the army commander.
"It is like a war situation in Trincomalee. If the attacks continue, the LTTE will be forced to take military defensive action," S. Puleedevan, head of the Tigers' peace secretariat, told Reuters.
The army said it had closed borders with rebel territory. Some aid workers helping rebuild after the 2004 tsunami said they were evacuating from the north and east. United Nations agencies stayed where they were, but canceled transport.
Tiger northeastern political leader S. Elilan said shelling had ceased late in the morning. At least 10 bodies had been recovered and 25 people were injured, he said. The Tigers say many people have fled their homes into the jungle.
The military said the Tigers fired mortars into nearby government areas, killing three civilians and wounding 13, including two navy sailors. The government said the strikes would last as long as the Tigers kept up attacks.
They were the first official military action since a 2002 ceasefire halted the two-decades-old civil war and raised hopes of a lasting peace. They followed a string of suspected Tiger attacks on the military and ethnic riots against Tamils.
Colombo's stock market ended down more than four percent on Wednesday as investors feared a return to full-scale war.
"CALLOUS ATTACKS"
Swedish Major-General Ulf Henricsson, who heads the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission that oversees the truce, said if air strikes continued, peace talks would become difficult. The worst-case scenario was a return to war, he said.
"I think the parties are not prepared for that," he said. "And if they were, it would be devastating for the people of Sri Lanka and for their own military capabilities."
More than 100 people had already died in the bloodiest two weeks since the truce even before a female suicide bomber, disguised to look pregnant, blew herself up at Colombo's high-security army headquarters.
The Tigers on Tuesday denied responsibility for the suicide bomb attack.
But a suspected Tiger front group, the High Security Zone Residents' Liberation Force (HSZRLF), took responsibility.
"HSZRLF feels that the LTTE is merely wasting time by maintaining a ceasefire," it said in a fax.
The Tigers indefinitely postponed a second round of peace talks that were to take place last week in Geneva, accusing the government of obstructing the transport of eastern rebel leaders to a pre-talks meeting. The Tigers say they are examining new government proposals.
But diplomats say they were looking for an excuse to pull out, angry the government had not reined in a renegade group of ex-rebels, the Karuna group, which has been attacking the mainstream Tigers in the east.
Some fear the Tigers might be planning a return to the battlefield to win their goal of a separate Tamil homeland.
Mediator Norway, due to host a weekend meeting of Sri Lanka's other key donors the European Union, United States and Japan, said both sides wanted talks to happen.
"I think the fact we have seen an escalation of violence makes ... going to Geneva much more complicated," Norwegian envoy Jon Hanssen-Bauer told Reuters. "It's an atmosphere now that is not very conducive for the two parties to make concessions."
(Additional reporting by Lindsay Beck and Ranga Sirilal in COLOMBO and Joe Ariyaratnam in JAFFNA)
April 26, 2006
COLOMBO - Sri Lanka's military launched air and artillery strikes on Tamil Tiger areas in the island's northeast on Wednesday, a day after a suicide bomb attack blamed on the rebels shattered an already fragile ceasefire.
Military spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe said the latest strikes came after the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) fired on naval patrol craft off the eastern port of Trincomalee for a second day.
The rebels said they would retaliate if the government continued the attacks, launched after a suspected Tiger suicide bomb in the capital killed nine and wounded the army commander.
"It is like a war situation in Trincomalee. If the attacks continue, the LTTE will be forced to take military defensive action," S. Puleedevan, head of the Tigers' peace secretariat, told Reuters.
The army said it had closed borders with rebel territory. Some aid workers helping rebuild after the 2004 tsunami said they were evacuating from the north and east. United Nations agencies stayed where they were, but canceled transport.
Tiger northeastern political leader S. Elilan said shelling had ceased late in the morning. At least 10 bodies had been recovered and 25 people were injured, he said. The Tigers say many people have fled their homes into the jungle.
The military said the Tigers fired mortars into nearby government areas, killing three civilians and wounding 13, including two navy sailors. The government said the strikes would last as long as the Tigers kept up attacks.
They were the first official military action since a 2002 ceasefire halted the two-decades-old civil war and raised hopes of a lasting peace. They followed a string of suspected Tiger attacks on the military and ethnic riots against Tamils.
Colombo's stock market ended down more than four percent on Wednesday as investors feared a return to full-scale war.
"CALLOUS ATTACKS"
Swedish Major-General Ulf Henricsson, who heads the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission that oversees the truce, said if air strikes continued, peace talks would become difficult. The worst-case scenario was a return to war, he said.
"I think the parties are not prepared for that," he said. "And if they were, it would be devastating for the people of Sri Lanka and for their own military capabilities."
More than 100 people had already died in the bloodiest two weeks since the truce even before a female suicide bomber, disguised to look pregnant, blew herself up at Colombo's high-security army headquarters.
The Tigers on Tuesday denied responsibility for the suicide bomb attack.
But a suspected Tiger front group, the High Security Zone Residents' Liberation Force (HSZRLF), took responsibility.
"HSZRLF feels that the LTTE is merely wasting time by maintaining a ceasefire," it said in a fax.
The Tigers indefinitely postponed a second round of peace talks that were to take place last week in Geneva, accusing the government of obstructing the transport of eastern rebel leaders to a pre-talks meeting. The Tigers say they are examining new government proposals.
But diplomats say they were looking for an excuse to pull out, angry the government had not reined in a renegade group of ex-rebels, the Karuna group, which has been attacking the mainstream Tigers in the east.
Some fear the Tigers might be planning a return to the battlefield to win their goal of a separate Tamil homeland.
Mediator Norway, due to host a weekend meeting of Sri Lanka's other key donors the European Union, United States and Japan, said both sides wanted talks to happen.
"I think the fact we have seen an escalation of violence makes ... going to Geneva much more complicated," Norwegian envoy Jon Hanssen-Bauer told Reuters. "It's an atmosphere now that is not very conducive for the two parties to make concessions."
(Additional reporting by Lindsay Beck and Ranga Sirilal in COLOMBO and Joe Ariyaratnam in JAFFNA)
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