By Amantha Perera
COLOMBO, Jun 12 2006 (IPS)

The failure of Norwegian peace brokers to get representatives of Tamil Tiger rebels and the Sri Lankan government to sit across a table, after their arrival in Oslo, appears to have served as the cue for renewed violence and brutality in Sri Lanka.

The failure of Norwegian peace brokers to get representatives of Tamil Tiger rebels and the Sri Lankan government to sit across a table, after their arrival in Oslo, appears to have served as the cue for renewed violence and brutality in Sri Lanka.

At least ten people were killed in violence over the weekend, including a soldier and a high ranking member of the Tamil Tigers, known formally as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Each side is now accusing the other of attacking and murdering civilians.

The LTTE, which has been condemned by several international organisations, including the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), for allegedly recruiting child soldiers, is now accusing the Sri Lankan army of attacks on civilians and children.

“The gruesome nature of the murders of children must send chills down the spines of anyone, in particular those who have proclaimed concerns for the welfare of the children,” an LTTE statement said.

On Monday, to back their charges, the LTTE released through its web-based Tamil Eelam News Services, pictures of a family of four, including a seven-year-old boy and his nine-year-old sister, allegedly murdered by the Sri Lankan army in Vankalai in northern Mannar district on Thursday night. The LTTE has also released a list of 24 children killed, allegedly, by the Sri Lankan army.

Close to 700 people have died in violence linked to general elections that resulted in the installation of President Mahinda Rajapakse in November, leading a pro-Sinhala coalition which has questioned the Norway-brokered truce.

Delegates from the government and the Tamil Tigers were to meet in Oslo, Jun. 8-9, to discuss the future role of the Scandinavian Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM). The talks were also billed as an icebreaker for the resumption of stalled peace negotiation series in Geneva. But the LTTE contingent refused to meet the government side on the grounds that it lacked ministerial level representation.

Forty eight hours before the talks were to begin a claymore mine exploded in close proximity to a naval base just out of the capital Colombo.

The latest violence has renewed fears that the truce, effective since February 2002, was about to collapse and that the country was on the brink of unbridled sectarian violence. “The country has fallen into a situation where the security of the monitors has to be ensured before the security of the people who are already living here. The truce has been violated several times, but it is the only document that is holding the country intact,” N. Ananth, a Tamil from northern Jaffna said.

The Tigers have fought successive Sri Lankan governments demanding a separate state for the country’s minority Tamils in the country’s north-east. More than two and half decades of fighting has claimed more than 65,000 lives.

According to government statistics, more than 300 persons have been killed in the violence that paused briefly in late January when the Norwegians brought the two sides back to the negotiating table after a three-year hiatus.

The Tigers are peeved by a recent ban imposed on the LTTE by the European Union and officially informed the Norwegians in Oslo that they wanted monitors from EU states removed. Oslo too has criticised the timing of the ban.

“The EU and the Co-chairs (of the Sri Lanka donor forum) have given the Tamil people (an) indirect political message asking them to form a separate state,” the Tiger official publication said in its editorial. The Tigers also released a statement in Oslo reaffirming its plan for self determination. In December 2002, the LTTE and the then government had in fact worked out a plan for devolution of power within a federal structure, but further negotiations on it have remained deadlocked since April 2003.

The Rajapakse government is also unhappy with the SLMM and has reacted strongly to a report submitted by the group in Oslo on the ground situation since the January talks. “The initial positive forward looking atmosphere was however quickly changed into reality as the government of Sri Lanka remained unwilling to implement all of its commitments and instead denied even the mere presence of armed groups in their areas. In addition, the government of Sri Lanka showed little willingness to accept requests by the LTTE aimed at normalising the situation,’’ the monitors reported.

“These ill-considered comments, which border on the realm of speculation at best, could indeed incite the LTTE to engage in violence and produce the very outcome that (SLMM head) Ulf Henricsson has speculated on,” the government said in a rejoinder accusing the SLMM report.

While the government and the SLMM trade charges, there were indications of more violence in the north and east. ‘’Now that the (school final) exams are coming to an end, we would be intensifying our attacks on the military and EPDP (a pro-government Tamil party) in a few days’ time,’’ the shadowy civilian group, Tamil Resurgence Force(TRF), warned in a statement in northern Jaffna over the weekend.

Though the Tigers have denied any direct links with the TRF, they continue to impart basic military training to civilians in areas under their control. Two weeks ago 10,000 civilians received such training in Tiger-held areas in Mulaithivu.

In the meantime, a breakaway faction also stepped up attacks on the Tigers deep inside areas held by the latter. The faction led by former Tiger eastern military head Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan alias Karuna said it killed the Tiger area comamnder for Mannar, Mahenthi (one name) in a claymore attack on Jun. 10. Several claymore attacks were reported in Tiger-held areas over the weekend.

The Tigers have accused the Sri Lankan military of supporting the renegade commander and say that recent attacks were, in fact, carried out by members of the government forces and not the breakaway group.

Excerpt:

By Amantha Perera
COLOMBO, Jun 12 2006 (IPS)

The failure of Norwegian peace brokers to get representatives of Tamil Tiger rebels and the Sri Lankan government to sit across a table, after their arrival in Oslo, appears to have served as the cue for renewed violence and brutality in Sri Lanka.

At least ten people were killed in violence over the weekend, including a soldier and a high ranking member of the Tamil Tigers, known formally as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Each side is now accusing the other of attacking and murdering civilians.

The LTTE, which has been condemned by several international organisations, including the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), for allegedly recruiting child soldiers, is now accusing the Sri Lankan army of attacks on civilians and children.

"The gruesome nature of the murders of children must send chills down the spines of anyone, in particular those who have proclaimed concerns for the welfare of the children," an LTTE statement said.

On Monday, to back their charges, the LTTE released through its web-based Tamil Eelam News Services, pictures of a family of four, including a seven-year-old boy and his nine-year-old sister, allegedly murdered by the Sri Lankan army in Vankalai in northern Mannar district on Thursday night. The LTTE has also released a list of 24 children killed, allegedly, by the Sri Lankan army.

However, a defence ministry spokesman denied that the armed forces were in any way involved in the deaths of children and charged the LTTE with making false allegations to divert attention from its own record of forcibly recruiting child soldiers.

Close to 700 people have died in violence linked to general elections that resulted in the installation of President Mahinda Rajapakse in November, leading a pro-Sinhala coalition which has questioned the Norway-brokered truce.

Delegates from the government and the Tamil Tigers were to meet in Oslo, Jun. 8-9, to discuss the future role of the Scandinavian Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM). The talks were also billed as an icebreaker for the resumption of stalled peace negotiation series in Geneva. But the LTTE contingent refused to meet the government side on the grounds that it lacked ministerial level representation.

Forty eight hours before the talks were to begin a claymore mine exploded in close proximity to a naval base just out of the capital Colombo.

The latest violence has renewed fears that the truce, effective since February 2002, was about to collapse and that the country was on the brink of unbridled sectarian violence. "The country has fallen into a situation where the security of the monitors has to be ensured before the security of the people who are already living here. The truce has been violated several times, but it is the only document that is holding the country intact," N. Ananth, a Tamil from northern Jaffna said.

The Tigers have fought successive Sri Lankan governments demanding a separate state for the country’s minority Tamils in the country’s north-east. More than two and half decades of fighting has claimed more than 65,000 lives.

According to government statistics, more than 300 persons have been killed in the violence that paused briefly in late January when the Norwegians brought the two sides back to the negotiating table after a three-year hiatus.

The Tigers are peeved by a recent ban imposed on the LTTE by the European Union and officially informed the Norwegians in Oslo that they wanted monitors from EU states removed. Oslo too has criticised the timing of the ban.

"The EU and the Co-chairs (of the Sri Lanka donor forum) have given the Tamil people (an) indirect political message asking them to form a separate state," the Tiger official publication said in its editorial. The Tigers also released a statement in Oslo reaffirming its plan for self determination. In December 2002, the LTTE and the then government had in fact worked out a plan for devolution of power within a federal structure, but further negotiations on it have remained deadlocked since April 2003.

The Rajapakse government is also unhappy with the SLMM and has reacted strongly to a report submitted by the group in Oslo on the ground situation since the January talks. "The initial positive forward looking atmosphere was however quickly changed into reality as the government of Sri Lanka remained unwilling to implement all of its commitments and instead denied even the mere presence of armed groups in their areas. In addition, the government of Sri Lanka showed little willingness to accept requests by the LTTE aimed at normalising the situation,’’ the monitors reported.

"These ill-considered comments, which border on the realm of speculation at best, could indeed incite the LTTE to engage in violence and produce the very outcome that (SLMM head) Ulf Henricsson has speculated on," the government said in a rejoinder accusing the SLMM report.

While the government and the SLMM trade charges, there were indications of more violence in the north and east. ‘’Now that the (school final) exams are coming to an end, we would be intensifying our attacks on the military and EPDP (a pro-government Tamil party) in a few days&#39 time,’’ the shadowy civilian group, Tamil Resurgence Force(TRF), warned in a statement in northern Jaffna over the weekend.

Though the Tigers have denied any direct links with the TRF, they continue to impart basic military training to civilians in areas under their control. Two weeks ago 10,000 civilians received such training in Tiger-held areas in Mulaithivu.

In the meantime, a breakaway faction also stepped up attacks on the Tigers deep inside areas held by the latter. The faction led by former Tiger eastern military head Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan alias Karuna said it killed the Tiger area comamnder for Mannar, Mahenthi (one name) in a claymore attack on Jun. 10. Several claymore attacks were reported in Tiger-held areas over the weekend.

The Tigers have accused the Sri Lankan military of supporting the renegade commander and say that recent attacks were, in fact, carried out by members of the government forces and not the breakaway group.

Excerpt: