Sri Lanka Monitors Believe Ex-Tigers Work With Army

Reuters

16 May 2006

By Peter Apps

VAVUNIYA, Sri Lanka, May 16 (Reuters) - Former Tamil Tigers now part of a breakaway group appear to be carrying out attacks and extortion in Sri Lanka's north and probably have army backing, despite denials, international truce monitors say.

The government denies any links to the so-called Karuna group, but the Tigers appear to have retaliated for attacks by ambushing the army. The rebels say Karuna killings must stop before they will come to peace talks.

"I firmly believe that Karuna is going around this area," said Jouni Suninen, head of the district office of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) in the northern town of Vavuniya.

"We have eyewitnesses who tell us they have seen Karunas around. I cannot see how they could be operating here without the support of the army."

The monitors will not give details of individual cases for fear the victims could be tracked down and killed.

Former eastern Tiger commander Col. Karuna Amman split from the mainstream Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels in 2004, taking control of much of their eastern territories, but was swiftly pushed out by a Tiger offensive.

His group says they have attacked the rebels in the east, but not the north.

A senior Karuna aide and member of his fledgling political party, the TMVP, said there was no truth to the SLMM reports.

"We don't have any military activities in that area," he said, denying the group had any support from the military.

Karuna's powerbase is seen as his home area in eastern Sri Lanka, where the group says it has camps. The government says they are in uncontrolled jungle areas, while the Tigers say they are clearly next to army installations.

The Vavuniya monitors, who track violations of a 2002 ceasefire despite recent violence, say they are confident they have evidence. They say they believe Karuna's men are operating from army camps and carrying out attacks behind rebel lines.

GRENADES, THREATS

"We have eyewitnesses telling us that they are based in army camps," said Suninen.

The government's reluctance to stop Karuna attacks is seen as a key reason the Tigers pulled indefinitely out of peace talks last month. Violence has since risen sharply and the SLMM says Sri Lanka is now in a low intensity war with the LTTE.

The monitors say both Karuna and the mainstream Tigers are using threats to extract money from local business leaders -- but that Karuna members demand more money and have a greater tendency to kill if they do not get it.

Grenades are thrown at the houses of those who refuse to pay, they say, and then the businessmen are kidnapped and sometimes killed. Officials say 10 businessmen have been killed in the last three months in Vavuniya.

The local district judge says he has used court orders to block what he believes are Karuna bank accounts in the eastern towns of Ampara and Trincomalee used in extortion cases.

Local police say they know extortion is taking place, but that they believe Karuna only operates in the east.

"There are a lot of Tamil groups asking for money," said Senior Superintendent J. Abeysririgunawardena. "The businessmen in the community, they know the groups. But they are not coming to us."