Tigers report army ambush as S.Lanka violence soars

By Peter Apps

COLOMBO (Reuters) – Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger rebels said
government forces ambushed and killed two of their men on
Thursday, a charge the army denied, as the body count from
recent violence soared and diplomats said war might not be far
away.

More than 40 people have died in the past week, 16 of them
on Wednesday in two suspected rebel blasts in and near the
northeastern port of Trincomalee and the ethnic riot that
followed in which a majority Sinhalese mob attacked minority
Tamils. It was the bloodiest day since a 2002 ceasefire.

With tensions rising fast, aid workers providing relief
after the 2004 tsunami said they had suspended operations in
parts of northeastern Sri Lanka. Diplomats said return to the
island’s two-decade civil war looked increasingly likely.

Police said at least two Tamil civilians had been killed by
unknown gunmen in the northern army-held Jaffna enclave, hemmed
in by rebel lines.

The Tigers blamed army-backed Tamil groups for the
killings, and their Web site also accused the army and linked
groups of ambushing and killing two rebels behind Tiger lines
in the north and east. The military, repeatedly hit by
suspected Tiger attacks this week, denied the charge.

“We do not operate in LTTE areas,” army spokesman Brigadier
Prasad Samarasinghe said. “They are putting us under a lot of
pressure and they want to provoke us but we will not be
provoked.”

The Tigers also accuse the military of backing the ethnic
riots that followed a suspected rebel blast in Trincomalee on
Wednesday, in which a crowd mainly from the island’s Sinhalese
majority attacked Tamil shops and people.

“Seven people were cut and chopped and killed by the
Sinhalese thugs while the military and police looked on,”
Puracethi, head of the Tamil Eelam Students Union — a Tiger
body — told Reuters. “The police were keen to control and
suppress the Tamils.”

The army denies helping the rioters, a charge made on the
official rebel Web site, and the government blames the Tigers
for the bomb in a crowded market that triggered the violence.

Analysts say the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE),
whose two-decade fight for an ethnic Tamil homeland has killed
more than 64,000 on both sides, may use the riots to pull out
of the meeting.

PROVOKING RETALIATION, WAR

“One thing that is certain is that the talks are out,” said
Jane’s Defense Weekly analyst Iqbal Athas. “The events of the
past few days show the LTTE trying to provoke the military into
a retaliatory strike — and when that happens, that is when the
war will resume.”

The military said there had been sporadic incidents
overnight, with an army major and a soldier shot by a suspected
rebel on Wednesday evening and a shooting and grenade attack in
the northeast overnight that hurt no one.

The head of a Nordic-staffed mission monitoring the
ceasefire was due to meet the head of the Tigers’ political
wing later on Thursday. The rebels are angry that the
government has not disarmed other Tamil groups they say are
attacking them, but deny themselves carrying out any attacks.
Few analysts believe them.

Military and rebels have different accounts of what
happened in Trincomalee. The army says most of the dead
civilians died in the bomb blast, while the Tamil Eelam
Students Union says seven of the 14 dead were burned and
stabbed by the rioters.

A Reuters photographer said a curfew remained in force in
the town, which is partly surrounded by Tiger territory. He
counted 15 dead bodies including one child in the hospital,
many burned, but it was unclear how they died.

Analysts say many foreign investors were awaiting the
outcome of next week’s scheduled peace talks before deciding
whether to put money into the $20 billion economy. Tourism is
also expected to be hit, and aid workers say their work will
become almost impossible.

(Additional reporting by Joe Ariyaratnam in JAFFNA)