Sri Lankan govt 'has no plans to withdraw from ceasefire'
Sri Lanka’s government said today it has no plans to withdraw from its ceasefire with Tamil Tiger rebels despite a regional Tiger leader declaring the accord dead because of air and artillery assaults on rebel territory.
The army forces in northeastern Trincomalee made slow progress in their assault, which the government called a humanitarian mission aimed at ending a rebel blockade of water supplies.
A Tiger leader in Trincomalee said the government troops were trying to enter rebel territory in that area, amounting to what he called a declaration of war. Under the country’s 2002 ceasefire, the government and rebels must seek permission before entering each other’s areas.
“Therefore for us the ceasefire is null and void,” said Puratchi, who goes by one name.
Puratchi said he was speaking for the Tamil Tigers, but his comments could not immediately be confirmed by other rebel leaders. Top officials in the rebel stronghold of Kilinochchi were not available.
Meanwhile, the rebels opened a new front by shelling government positions across their front lines in northern Jaffna Peninsula.
But the military said they killed the attackers. “The Sri Lanka army successfully repulsed (rebels’) 81mm mortar fire…..killing four (rebel) cadres today,” the military said on their website. The military suffered no casualties.
The European team monitoring Sri Lanka’s ceasefire confirmed it had received a letter from the rebels threatening retaliation against government troops, but that it did not mention a pull-out from the ceasefire.
“Maybe they are more aggressive verbally than the letter that we have received this (Monday) morning,” monitors’ spokesman, Thorfinnur Omarsson said.
The government said its assault in Trincomalee was aimed only at reaching a site where Tiger rebels were blocking a reservoir’s flow of water to villages in government-held territory, and thus was not an act of war.
“Definitely not, we are not abrogating from the ceasefire,” chief government spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella said.
“Our military’s operation to open the irrigation gates is purely based on humanitarian grounds. It is not an act of war,” he said.
The rebels said the government offensive had forced 3,000 Tamil residents to flee the area, the independent Daily Mirror reported today.
On July 20, the rebels shut a reservoir sluice gate in their territory near Trincomalee, cutting water to 60,000 people living in villages in government territory. They said it was retaliation for the government’s reneging on a promise to build a water tower for adjacent areas under the rebels’ authority.
Samarasinghe said government troops were making progress in a drive towards the sluice gate to break the water blockade, though government officials said their movement was slowed by land mines.
Air force bombings in recent days have killed 15 guerrillas, the rebels’ official peace scretariat website said.
Months of violence, including clashes between government forces and the rebels, have killed about 800 people and battered the fragile 2002 ceasefire, which was meant to end two decades of fighting that claimed the lives of about 65,000 people.
The rebels began fighting for an independent Tamil homeland in 1983, accusing the majority Sinhalese of discrimination.
