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SRI LANKA: Games With Tiger Rivals Bedevil Peace Talks

Amantha Perera

COLOMBO, Apr 19 2006 (IPS) - While Tamil Tiger rebels have cited lack of safe passage for their commanders to meet and confer, as the reason for backing out of peace talks in Geneva this month, the real reason may be sneaky government patronage for a splinter faction.

The Tigers, known officially as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), are holding the government to a pledge, made during the first round of talks in Geneva in January, that it would disarm a splinter faction led by Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan alias Col. Karuna, that operates out of government-held areas in the east of the island.

While the government denies supporting the armed renegade group, it has been inflicting losses on Tiger cadres and challenging the LTTE&#39s claim to be the sole voice of the Tamil ethnic minority, that is concentrated in the north and east.

The Tigers say their cadres killed three Karuna faction members and apprehended a third during a skirmish in the eastern district of Batticaloa, on Monday, in the latest episode of infighting. Karuna, former LTTE commander in the east, broke ranks and defected to government-held areas in April 2003.

Several days ago, the Karuna group claimed that it had killed eight Tiger cadres.

Fighting between the LTTE and Karuna&#39s faction and that between the LTTE and government forces have claimed at least 100 lives this month, already the bloodiest since a February 2002 ceasefire ended a two-decade-old civil war that has caused over 65,000 deaths.

While disarming the Karuna faction is the main condition laid down by the Tigers for the Geneva series to continue, the government of President Mahinda Rajapakse, which is supported by hardline pro-Sinhala allies that demand military action against the LTTE, is reluctant to do this.

Still, Rajapakse&#39s government has agreed to provide the Tigers with privately operated helicopters to transport its eastern commanders to their northern headquarters for meetings with LTTE supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran.

Earlier, the government refused to provide military helicopters as requested by the Tigers and, last week, an attempt by peace monitors of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), whose members are drawn from the Nordic countries, to move Tiger cadres by sea failed because of alleged interference by the Sri Lankan navy.

"It is the most obvious and the logical option," deputy secretary general at the government&#39s peace secretariat, Kethees Loganathan, told IPS. He said that the Tigers had indicated that they had security concerns over using military transport. The eastern Tiger leadership has to travel through government-held territory to reach the LTTE headquarters in the north.

The government finalised the details of the fresh initiative, early this week, during discussions with the monitors and Loganathan said that a formal proposal had already been handed over to Norwegian peace facilitators.

While Jon Hanssen Bauer, the new peace envoy has arrived in the country and will hold discussions with Rajapakse and the Tiger leadership this week, S. Pulidevan, head of the Tiger peace secretariat said the LTTE would not go to Geneva until the government fulfills pledges made at the last round.

The government and the Tigers, nevertheless, have repeatedly said that they would honour the 2002 ceasefire signed through Norwegian facilitation.

Renewed tension between the two negotiating parties has resulted in upsurges of violence in December and January and once again this month. Last week, riots erupted between the majority Sinhalese and Tamils in Trincomalee resulting in the deaths of 15 people.

While the government blames the Tigers for the latest violence, the latter has denied responsibility claiming that they were carried out by a civilian force called the Tamil Resurgence Force (TRF), in retaliation for harassment of civilians.

"We stopped our attacks temporarily on behalf of the LTTE (Tigers), for the implementation of the ceasefire agreement as agreed by the government and the LTTE at the Geneva talks. But, the government did not act as agreed and has started its atrocities against the Tamils again. We cannot afford to be patient any longer," the shadowy TRF said in a statement claiming responsibility.

Observers said that just as the government is using Karuna&#39s faction to put pressure on the LTTE, the LTTE is retaliating by deploying the TRF against security forces.

The TRF said that it was forced to re-launch attacks stopped in January after the government failed to respect pledges made at the talks. "We apologise to the LTTE for carrying out the attacks. It is the only way to protect our people," the statement said..

The latest TRF attacks followed the assassination in Trincomalee of V. Vignewswaran, a prominent pro-Tiger civil activist. His death was avenged by a claymore mine attack that claimed the lives of 10 sailors and one civilian.