Clash erupts in Sri Lanka a day after peace deal
COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's military and Tamil Tiger rebels accused each other of new attacks on Thursday, a day after agreeing to peace talks that international truce monitors warned could be prevented by the violence.
The Tigers said a senior militant was killed in an ambush by troops and paramilitaries in the east, while the army said they were not involved but had heard an explosion and shooting.
Two rocket propelled grenades were then fired at a military bunker from behind rebel lines.
A military spokesman said they were not apportioning blame for the grenade attack, but another army source said they believed it had been carried out by the Tigers.
"This is madness," said Hagrup Haukland, the Norwegian ex-soldier who heads the unarmed Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM). "There are parties in this country who want nothing but war. If this goes on, the ceasefire agreement talks will go down the drain."
A string of suspected rebel attacks on government troops nearly destroyed a 2002 truce and brought the island to the edge of a new civil war, but on Wednesday, Norwegian truce broker Erik Solheim got the two sides to agree to direct talks.
Senior delegations from the rebels and government are to meet in Switzerland in February to discuss the implementation of the truce, he said, a meeting diplomats said was badly needed after about 200 people were killed in less than two months.
The Tigers denied they had fired on the army on Thursday, and said they were extremely concerned by the attack on them.
"The leadership is seriously disturbed," S. Puleedevan, the head of the Tiger peace secretariat, told Reuters from the rebel de facto capital Kilinochchi.
He did not say the talks were threatened, but warned: "This is not going to help the peace process. Definitely it is going to create problems."
The incident occurred in an area monitors say is a stronghold of the Karuna group, a rebel faction which has split from the mainstream.
It is believed linked to the government, and the SLMM says security forces have turned a blind eye to its activities.
Analysts say Karuna Amman, a former Tiger commander with strong support in the east, would be crucial to the army in any new war. But in peacetime, they say he might be assassinated by the Tigers and so his force is one of a handful of groups with a strong motive to wreck the truce.
LITTLE TRUST
Even if the Geneva talks take place, the gap between the two sides remains vast. The Tigers are seen unlikely to compromise on demands for self rule, while President Mahinda Rajapakse has pledged to maintain a unitary state.
Earlier in the day, as a goodwill gesture, the Tigers freed one of three child protection policemen held since they strayed behind rebel lines hunting an alleged paedophile in September.
Although the stock market rose 7 percent on Thursday on hopes of peace, others were less euphoric. Aid workers helping tsunami victims said they were looking at contingency plans in case the 20-year war that has already killed more than 64,000 resumed.
Speaking early on Thursday in Colombo after returning from a meeting with reclusive rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, peace broker Solheim warned that some elements might try to provoke a resumption of violence.
"The big risk are spoilers who want to produce violence to undermine this positive effort," he told Reuters in an interview. "At the moment the parties should do their utmost to stop violence, but they should not let violent elements and spoilers derail the process."
But while some diplomats say Karuna and hardline Sinhalese nationalist groups currently allied to Rajapakse are the greatest risks, many in the military say they still do not trust their old enemies, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
(Additional reporting by Ranga Sirilal)
The Tigers said a senior militant was killed in an ambush by troops and paramilitaries in the east, while the army said they were not involved but had heard an explosion and shooting.
Two rocket propelled grenades were then fired at a military bunker from behind rebel lines.
A military spokesman said they were not apportioning blame for the grenade attack, but another army source said they believed it had been carried out by the Tigers.
"This is madness," said Hagrup Haukland, the Norwegian ex-soldier who heads the unarmed Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM). "There are parties in this country who want nothing but war. If this goes on, the ceasefire agreement talks will go down the drain."
A string of suspected rebel attacks on government troops nearly destroyed a 2002 truce and brought the island to the edge of a new civil war, but on Wednesday, Norwegian truce broker Erik Solheim got the two sides to agree to direct talks.
Senior delegations from the rebels and government are to meet in Switzerland in February to discuss the implementation of the truce, he said, a meeting diplomats said was badly needed after about 200 people were killed in less than two months.
The Tigers denied they had fired on the army on Thursday, and said they were extremely concerned by the attack on them.
"The leadership is seriously disturbed," S. Puleedevan, the head of the Tiger peace secretariat, told Reuters from the rebel de facto capital Kilinochchi.
He did not say the talks were threatened, but warned: "This is not going to help the peace process. Definitely it is going to create problems."
The incident occurred in an area monitors say is a stronghold of the Karuna group, a rebel faction which has split from the mainstream.
It is believed linked to the government, and the SLMM says security forces have turned a blind eye to its activities.
Analysts say Karuna Amman, a former Tiger commander with strong support in the east, would be crucial to the army in any new war. But in peacetime, they say he might be assassinated by the Tigers and so his force is one of a handful of groups with a strong motive to wreck the truce.
LITTLE TRUST
Even if the Geneva talks take place, the gap between the two sides remains vast. The Tigers are seen unlikely to compromise on demands for self rule, while President Mahinda Rajapakse has pledged to maintain a unitary state.
Earlier in the day, as a goodwill gesture, the Tigers freed one of three child protection policemen held since they strayed behind rebel lines hunting an alleged paedophile in September.
Although the stock market rose 7 percent on Thursday on hopes of peace, others were less euphoric. Aid workers helping tsunami victims said they were looking at contingency plans in case the 20-year war that has already killed more than 64,000 resumed.
Speaking early on Thursday in Colombo after returning from a meeting with reclusive rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, peace broker Solheim warned that some elements might try to provoke a resumption of violence.
"The big risk are spoilers who want to produce violence to undermine this positive effort," he told Reuters in an interview. "At the moment the parties should do their utmost to stop violence, but they should not let violent elements and spoilers derail the process."
But while some diplomats say Karuna and hardline Sinhalese nationalist groups currently allied to Rajapakse are the greatest risks, many in the military say they still do not trust their old enemies, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
(Additional reporting by Ranga Sirilal)
posted by Marko at 1/26/2006 11:04:00 PM
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