S.Lanka rebels lift water blockade, say truce holds

KILINOCHCHI, Sri Lanka (Reuters) – Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers
said on Sunday they would lift a blockade on water supplies to
government areas and that a 2002 ceasefire still held, but
warned further attacks by the military would mean war.

Tiger political wing leader. S.P. Thamilselvan said the
Tigers would unblock a sluice gate in the east — a blockage
that plunged the island into a fresh bout of civil war — if
the government agreed to their demands.

“Our leader has agreed to open the sluice on humanitarian
grounds,” Thamilselvan told reporters in the northern rebel
stronghold of Kilinochchi after talks with Norwegian peace
envoy Jon Hanssen-Bauer.

“The ceasefire is on at the moment, and if the military
continues attacks and shellings and makes any more moves, we
will consider it as a full scale war.”