SRI LANKA: Fresh Killings Put Geneva Talks in Jeopardy

By Amantha Perera Reprint | | Print |

Amantha Perera

HABARANA, Apr 12 2006 (IPS) - A series of attacks on security forces, this week, has vitiated the atmosphere for a second round of parleys in Geneva between the Sri Lankan government and the militant Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), set for Apr.19-20.

In the latest attack, two policemen were killed when the truck they were travelling in went over a landmine near the harbour town of Trincomalee on Wednesday.

On Tuesday afternoon, ten sailors were killed in a claymore mine attack at Kantale, 20 km south of Trincomalee. Another claymore attack, on Monday, left five soldiers and two local humanitarian aid workers dead, in northern Jaffna.

The international Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission (SLMM), led by Maj. Gen. Ulf Henricsson, said in a statement that it &#39&#39strongly condemns the claymore mine attacks on the Sri Lankan army in Jaffna on 8 and 10 April 2006 and on the Sri Lankan navy in Trincomalee district today (Tuesday). Over 20 people have been killed in violent attacks over the past five days and many civilians have also been caught in the above mentioned attacks resulting in both death and serious injuries&#39&#39.

&#39&#39The attacks are seriously jeopardising not only the Geneva talks scheduled later this month, but are having a detrimental effect on the ceasefire,&#39&#39 the SLMM said. The reference was to pledges in February, in Geneva, between the LTTE and government negotiators to refrain from attacking each other&#39s personnel and to a Norway- brokered truce in February 2002, bringing more than two decades of ethnic warfare to a halt.

Earlier, on Mar. 26, the SLMM said it perceived a &#39&#39lack of commitment&#39&#39 to the agreements entered into in February as well as to the ceasefire.

The main cause for continued hostilities has been the inability or unwillingness of the Sri Lankan army to curb the activities of a splinter faction of the LTTE led by Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan, alias Karuna, which is allowed to operate out of government-controlled areas in the east.

The Tigers charge the government with backing the Karuna group and not abiding by agreements reached in Geneva, under which the government had promised to disarm Karuna&#39s faction.

On its side, the government has charged the Tigers with blatantly violating the ceasefire provisions and indulging in violence. "The Secretary General (of the government peace secretariat) impressed upon the need of the international community to take specific measures to ensure that the LTTE (Tigers) desist from further escalating violence," an official statement said.

Meanwhile, Karuna&#39s faction has been busy stamping its presence in the main eastern town of Batticaloa. Last week, it opened a political office in the city. "This is the first step in the right direction. Our aim is to convert our organisation into a democratic force," spokesman for the faction, Thoyavan (one name) said.

The faction had earlier warned that it would continue with attacks on the Tigers and that any deal worked out in Geneva without their involvement would not succeed. In fact, a few days before the attacks against the security forces commenced, the Karuna faction had carried out attacks on Tiger posts in Trincomalee and Batticaloa, killing at least one member.

Faced with such attacks and what they charge as government inaction, Tiger political head S. P. Tamilselvan said that the organisation would soon move to disarm the Karuna faction on its own. He also said that members would use their own transport to travel through government-held areas and would strike back if confronted.

As the shadow fighting continued, Prime Minister Rathanasiri Wickremanayake warned in a message that if government troops continue to be targeted, the Tigers should be prepared for retaliation.

For their part, the Tigers have denied any role in the recent wave of attacks. "We don&#39t have reason to attack government forces," S. Elilan, the Tigers&#39 political head for Trincomalee told IPS.

An organisation calling itself the Tamil Resurgence Force (TRF) claimed responsibility for at least one attack. While the Tigers deny any links with the TRF, government forces insist that it is a Tiger front.

This week&#39s attacks have put the administration of President Mahinda Rajapakse in a spot especially, after the first round – held after a hiatus of almost three years – was hailed as a major breakthrough for the new president.

More than 65,000 people have died in the war waged by the Tigers demanding a separate state for Sri Lanka&#39s minority Tamils in the north and east of the island. The ceasefire, the longest in Sri Lanka&#39s history, has come under tremendous pressure following Karuna&#39s defection to the government side.

Trouble has also been brewing between the government and the LTTE over the distribution of several billion dollars worth of tsunami aid provided by the international community after the catastrophe devastated the coasts of Sri Lanka in December 2004.

Violence reached unprecedented levels, last December, before Norwegian peace envoy Erik Solheim was able to salvage the situation. Solheim, who was on the island last week, expressed confidence that the Geneva talks would be successful on the basis of meetings he had with Rajapakse and Tiger leaders.

"I strongly urge the two parties to meet in Geneva on Apr.19-20 as planned. This meeting will provide an opportunity for finding ways to implement the ceasefire agreement and promises the parties gave," Solheim said in a statement soon after the Trincomalee claymore attack.