Asia-Pacific, Headlines, Human Rights

SRI LANKA: Clashes Mar Govt, Tigers&#39 Vow to Talk

Amantha Perera

COLOMBO, Oct 12 2006 (IPS) - Continuous military confrontations and rhetoric have diminished hopes of renewed negotiations between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tigers just days after Norwegian facilitators won assurances from both sides to reopen talks.

Fighting broke out near the line of control in northern Jaffna on Tuesday. At least 30 combatants were killed and the death toll may be as high as 90 if figures quoted by both sides are accurate. The fighting came as Norway announced that both sides had agreed to talks in Geneva on Oct. 28 and 29.

Both the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tigers have indulged in war talk despite agreeing to resume negotiations by the end of the month. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, as the Tigers are officially known, wrote to the Norwegians of their concerns soon after fierce fighting north of the eastern town of Batticloa left more than 60 combatants dead earlier in the week.

The outbreak of violence erupted on Oct. 6, just 72 hours after Norwegian special peace envoy Jon Hanssen Bauer met the two sides. The Tigers also wrote to the truce monitors warning that if government forces continue with attacks, they would pull out of the ceasefire and take the military option.

"We received the letter over the weekend and the sentiments were expressed," said the spokesperson for the monitors, Thoffnuir Omarsson.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse told the ambassadors of Norway, the United States, Japan and the European Union almost the same thing – that the government reserved the right to retaliate.

The head of the Tigers&#39 political wing, S. P. Tamilselvan, had indicated to the Norwegians that if forays by government forces into areas under their control continue, they would reconsider reopening any dialogue. The full contents of the letters sent by Tamilselvan to the Norwegians and the monitors were not made public.

"If there is one more attack, we will pull out of the truce," Tiger military spokesperson Rasiah Illanthariyan told IPS soon after Norway&#39s ambassador to Sri Lanka Hans Braksttar met with the Tiger political leadership. "The message would be conveyed to the government," he said.

Both sides disagree on who was responsible for the latest confrontation that took place at Mankerni, where government forward defence lines are located. Military spokesperson Brig. Prasad Samarsinghe said that Tigers had launched mortars at army camps in the early hours of the morning, forcing retaliation.

"They attacked the camps and troops had to move into their areas to neutralise the fire," he said.

The Tigers, meanwhile, say that government troops supported by a breakaway faction entered their areas unprovoked. "Government troops and paramilitaries (the breakaway group) attacked from three sides, there was no firing from our side till then," Illanthariyan told IPS from the Tiger political headquarters in northern Kilinochchi.

The breakaway Karuna group led by former Tiger eastern military commander Vinyagamoorthi Muralitharan, alias Karuna, said that it too was part of the battle but denied working in collision with government forces.

"We attacked three Tiger camps in the early hours of the morning and killed 49 cadres, it was after that they started firing at the Army camps," spokesperson T. Thuyavan told IPS.

Independent verification of the claims was difficult due to lack of access to the site of the fighting. Peace monitors from the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission and representatives from the International Committee of the Red Cross were unable to get to the areas, even two days after fighting erupted. Both sides exchanged bodies three days after fighting commenced.

The Tigers also said that they were wary of the government forces preparing to launch more attacks into their territory. "We have reliable military intelligence that suggests the Sri Lanka military is in full preparation to launch offensive operations into our territory," Tamilserlvan told the pro-Tiger Tamilnet website, adding, "We want to ensure that we are not blamed for the out break of war as consequence to any Sri Lankan offensive."

The Tigers said that they had detected a reconnaissance mission from the Army near their forward defence lines in northern Muhamalai, south of the Tamil political centre Jaffna. Tiger military spokesperson Illanthariyan said that the group was pushed back.

The area has also witnessed exchange of continuous artillery fire in the past few days. The Tigers appear to have reacted to high-ranking government officials publicly vowing to retaliate if attacked by the Tigers despite reopening talks.

"We reserve the right to retaliate if attacks continue," Minister Keheliya Rambukwella said, even as Hanssen Bauer was busy laying the ground for fresh talks.

Army commander Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka had expressed the same idea when he met with diplomats. The new fighting and the rhetoric have heightened fears that peace negotiations might be beyond salvation.

"It is very disturbing, that fighting is taking place like this when they have agreed to talk," Omarsson said.

If fighting continues like this, both sides are likely to come under even more international pressure. Last month, the United States, Norway, the European Union and Japan said that they supported a resumption of talks. It was after their announcement that the Norwegians were able to achieve the fresh breakthrough.

The two sides signed a ceasefire through Norwegian facilitation in February 2002. The truce ended more than two decades of sectarian violence that has killed 66,000 people. However, violence has ratcheted up in the last 11 months where more than 1,500 have been killed.

The government is walking a delicate line in international diplomacy by playing hard to get at talks. Its human rights record has recently come under scrutiny and several international organisations, including the U.N., have called for an international human rights monitoring mission to Sri Lanka to investigate recent violations.

The government has stonewalled the suggestions, only allowing international participation as observers. The calls for the setting up of the mission increased with the murders of 17 local aid workers with the French relief agency Action Against Hunger (ACF) on Aug. 4.

"We don&#39t have any new information on why such a massacre took place, neither has the government shed any new light on the investigation, the investigation is still in the preliminary stages after two months," ACF Director General Beniot Miribel said in Paris last week.

"I don&#39t think an objective investigation can be carried out by either of the parties to the conflict. The only solution is to transfer the judicial procedure to an independent international commission," said Ulf Henricsson, who served as the head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission until last month.

He reiterated allegations that implicated government forces in the massacre. "It is clear that the government forces have been implicated in the massacre, several sources have told this."

He also expressed his doubts at the success of any inquiry arguing that evidence would have been erased with the time lapse. "Sri Lanka is perceived as a democracy, we don&#39t want to accuse any one, but we want the truth behind the massacre," ACF President Denis Metzger said.