Sri Lanka tense after pre-talks ambush, Tigers blamed

Mirusuvil (Sri Lanka), Apr 11: Sri Lankan troops today increased security in the aftermath of a suspected Tamil Tiger ambush that killed five soldiers and two aid workers, with peace talks in Switzerland next week uncertain.

The attack, the worst on land in several months, came ahead of the talks aimed at bolstering a strained 2002 ceasefire pact and hours before Canada joined the United States, Britain and India in listing the Tigers as a terrorist group.

''It was quite untimely and unnecessary,'' said small businessman Kandiah Tharmalingam, 40, who was only 150 metres (492 feet) away from the ambush on the northern Jaffna peninsula, which the army holds but minority Tamils dominate.

''When our leaders are planning to attend the second round of talks, this gives a bad image among the international community,'' he added.

A group calling itself the Resurging Peoples Force claimed responsibility for the attack in Jaffna newspapers, but said they were sorry for the death of two aid workers from Catholic charity Caritas, whose car was overtaking the army vehicle.

Suspicion immediately fell on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), whose two-decade fight for a separate Tamil homeland has killed more than 64,000 people on both sides and who routinely deny responsibility for attacks.

''In Jaffna, that kind of operation cannot be done by anyone other than the LTTE or the forces,'' said S. Balakrishnan, chairman of Sri Lankan think-tank, the Centre for Development Alternatives, pointing to the sophistication of the ambush.

Soldiers had dragged away the wreckage of the two vehicles caught in the hail of ball bearings blasted out by the claymore fragmentation mine, but glass still littered the road, a few miles from the edge of the rebel de facto state.

New checkpoints were set up and more troops were on the streets.

HURT TIGERS

Criticism of the Tigers in Jaffna, which they have held twice in two decades of civil war, is rare. But civilians -- who went through a similar rise of violence in December and January that many felt would trigger renewed conflict until the two sides agreed to a first round of talks -- said they were angry.

''The one thing I can say is these attacks must stop,'' said 50-year-old teacher Pushpedevi Shanmugshamugan. ''These attacks give unnecessary reasons for the government... to blame the LTTE and also give a wrong impression of the freedom struggle.'' The Tigers are always keen to curry international recognition for their de facto state, which has its own police force, courts and bank, and said they were very upset Canada had listed them as a terrorist group alongside Al Qaeda.

With their own economy based primarily on agriculture and fishing, analysts say the Tigers are heavily dependent on funds from expatriate Tamils, particularly in Canada.

''The Tamil people feel hurt that when the LTTE is talking to the government and we were going to go to Geneva, the Canadian government places this ban on us,'' head of the rebel peace secretariat S. Puleedevan told Reuters by satelite phone. ''It is not going to help the peace process.'' The Tigers have yet to categorically say they will go to the second round of talks in Geneva, although some say their brinkmanship is a negotiating tactic they have used before and they will ultimately go to complain about the government.

The rebels accuse Colombo of failing to rein in Tamil armed groups they say the military is using to attack them. They are also angry the air force has refused to provide a helicopter to bring eastern rebel commanders to a meeting ahead of Geneva.

Now they want facilitator Norway and international truce monitors to arrange safe conduct for a Sea Tiger rebel craft to bring eastern commanders to the main area of Tiger territory before the talks.

''If the Sri Lankan armed forces try to stop us then that would be the outbreak of a full-fledged war,'' Puleedevan said.

REUTERS