Sri Lanka peace shakes as Tigers edge towards return to arms
Tamil Tiger rebels today announced they may start using their own armed escorts for guerrillas travelling through government-held areas, defying Sri Lanka’s three-year-old ceasefire and pushing it to the brink of collapse.
European ceasefire monitors have entered emergency talks with the government on how to prevent the island nation from plunging back into war.
Rebels had demanded more security for their representatives who conduct political activities in government-controlled areas, following a bomb blast that narrowly missed a busload of 41 rebels last month. The accord allows them to conduct politics but not to carry arms in government areas.
The guerrillas gave the government two weeks to improve the security or risk renewed warfare, setting a deadline that passed on Thursday.
They began shutting down political offices in government areas the same day, while government security forces went on high alert.
The rebels relayed their warning about starting their own security escorts in a letter delivered to the government today by the ceasefire monitors, said officials familiar with the process.
The Tigers rejected the government’s offer earlier this week in which it conditionally agreed to boost security escorts, saying it was inadequate, the letter said.
Meanwhile, the military accused the rebels of more than 10 attacks on security forces since Tuesday, wounding more than two dozen people, said military spokesman Brig. Daya Ratnayake.
This week’s spate of attacks on security forces was the most intense since the 2002 ceasefire, said spokeswoman Helen Olafsdottir of the European team monitoring the accord. “The situation is a nightmare and most dangerous,” she said.
Today the country’s top court temporarily blocked an agreement between the government and the Tigers to share responsibility for distributing €2.4bn in foreign donations to areas struck by last December’s tsunami.
The ruling was likely to further strain relations between the government and rebels, who say Tamil-dominated areas have not received enough help in the tsunami-recovery efforts.
The Tamil Tigers began fighting in 1983 for a separate homeland for minority ethnic Tamils in the country’s north and east, claiming discrimination by the majority Sinhalese. The conflict killed nearly 65,000 people before the 2002 ceasefire.
Post-truce peace talks have been stalled since 2003 over rebel demands for wide autonomy.
