• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Tigers clash with ex-Tigers - S.Lanka army

Posted on: Saturday, 29 April 2006, 22:51 CDT

By Peter Apps

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Tamil Tiger rebels and a renegade ex-Tigers group were fighting each other in the east of the country on Sunday, Sri Lanka's army said, with war fears still high after a suicide bombing and government air strikes.

But it said the military was not involved in the clashes.

The Tigers have long accused the army of using ex-rebels led by former Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) commander Karuna Amman to attack them. The army denies the charge, but Nordic truce monitors say Karuna operates from government areas and the military has been at least turning a blind eye.

"There has been some firing and some attacks," said army spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe. "LTTE and Karuna. Both parties are fighting."

An eastern military source said it appeared the Tigers were attacking Karuna forces in jungle areas of what is officially army-controlled territory. It was unclear how heavy the fighting was.

More than 120 people have died in the bloodiest three weeks since a 2002 truce halted two decades of civil war, with a series of fragmentation mine attacks on troops, a suicide attack on army headquarters and government air strikes on rebel positions.

But with air strikes now halted, diplomats hope the island is stepping back from the brink. Both sides say they want to attend talks in Switzerland that are currently indefinitely postponed.

The process is currently deadlocked on the issue of transporting eastern rebel leaders to a pre-talks meeting at the main rebel headquarters. Currently, the two sides cannot agree where a seaplane carrying the commanders should land.

Analysts say the rebels are angry that, despite promising to disarm armed Tamil groups in government territory, the military has taken no action against Karuna. With the ex-rebels seen valuable to the army if war comes, few expect the government to disarm his men.

The spokesman said the attacks took place around the eastern town of Welikanda, widely seen as a Karuna stronghold. He said that while it was officially a government-held area, the military had no presence there.

Earlier in the week, a United Nations report said there was "circumstantial evidence" that the government backed Karuna, who says he wants to supplant the mainstream LTTE, and that police did nothing to investigate killings by his men.

Killings blamed on both Karuna and the Tigers are common in the east, but the Tigers appear to have also retaliated for Karuna attacks by attacking the army. The rebels deny carrying out any attacks, but few analysts or diplomats believe them.

Source: REUTERS

More News in this Category