Tigers again deny role in S.Lankan killing

By Simon Gardner

COLOMBO (Reuters) – Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger rebels on
Monday demanded police identify two suspected rebel cadres
arrested in connection with the assassination of Sri Lanka’s
foreign minister, again denying any involvement.

Police have arrested two Tamil youths they suspect are
members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on
suspicion of helping plan the assassination of Lakshman
Kadirgamar on August 12.

The sniper — or snipers — responsible for the killing are
still at large, and the assassination has raised the specter of
a return to the Tigers’ two-decade war for self-rule.

“As a nation we have already denied it,” Tigers spokesman
Daya Master said by telephone from the northern rebel
stronghold of Kilinochchi. “We want to know their identity.

“Normally they (the government) say Tigers have been
arrested, that’s the usual wording. We have to find out.”

The Tigers have rejected government accusations that they
killed Kadirgamar, but few in Colombo believe them. Dozens of
their opponents have been gunned down since a 2002 ceasefire
and analysts say their denial is a stock disclaimer.

However, the rebels have wound down their fiery rhetoric in
the wake of the killing, and have vowed not to initiate a
return to a conflict that has already killed over 64,000
people.

A senior police source said the suspects, arrested last
week and the only pair now in custody, had visited senior
rebels in Tiger territory.

“They are Tamils … They were assisting the main people,”
a top Colombo Crime Division source told Reuters, asking not to
be identified. He said they were suspected Tamil Tiger cadres.

“They had been taken to Kilinochchi and met with some LTTE
hierarchy. That was some time ago,” he added. “Enquiries are
not completed. Until we proceed with the investigation and
complete it, we can’t have them produced in court and they’ll
be kept under emergency laws for some time.”

Police spokesman Rienzie Perera confirmed two Tamil youths
had been arrested, one a gardener, the other a trishaw driver.

Peace mediator Norway is arranging emergency talks between
the two sides in a bid to find ways to preserve a 3-1/2-year
truce — the longest period of relative peace since the Tigers
began their war for self-rule in earnest in 1983.

But the government and the rebels have yet to agree on
where to hold the talks, and with a presidential election due
this year, most likely in November, some observers fear the
talks could be pushed onto the backburner by political
campaigning.

Nordic truce monitors who oversee the ceasefire and have to
rule on violations by both sides are still waiting to be given
details of the police investigation.

“We can’t make a ruling because we don’t have access to the
investigative materials as yet,” said Helen Olafsdottir,
spokeswoman for the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission.

A silent war of attrition in the restive east which the
Tigers and the military each blame on the other and which has
killed dozens of police, soldiers and rebel cadres since 2002,
continues to pile pressure on the truce.

“The environment is so complex and nobody has been able to
prove (who is behind) any of these murders, so the speculation
continues and in the meantime the whole ceasefire is being
gradually undermined,” Olafsdottir said.