Tensions soar in northeast S.Lanka on new attacks

SERUNUWARA, Sri Lanka, Apr 22: Attacks by suspected Tamil Tiger rebels and ethnic riots are fuelling rising tension in Sri Lanka's multi-ethnic east, making peace talks more difficult than ever.

Shops are shut and supplies are becoming scarce as trucking firms avoid an area that in the past two weeks has seen the worst violence since the island's 2002 ceasefire.

The blast of claymore fragmentation mines, the crack of AK-47 fire and the duller thud-thud of machine guns during and after apparent rebel ambushes is often followed by riots in which angry crowds from the island's Sinhalese majority look for Tamil shops and houses to burn.

''What is happening is very bad,'' said 39-year-old businessman Laxman Hemanth in one of the string of settlements south of the northeastern port of Trincomalee.

Aid operations have all but stopped in an area hard hit by the 2004 tsunami and where many communities have yet to recover from the island's two-decade civil war -- a conflict some believe is on the brink of restarting.

''We have had no food distribution in schools, clinics or centres,'' said Mahbub Ul Alam, local head of the United Nations World Food Programme.

The agency is responsible for feeding 150,000 people in Trincomalee district alone, where shortages during the conflict left 30 per cent of children stunted from malnutrition.

''In this office, we do not even have drinking water because the supplies have not come from Colombo.'' On Thursday, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) pulled out of peace talks scheduled next week in Switzerland.

Among other complaints, they alleged the almost exclusively Sinhalese army was backing ''ethnic cleansing'' in the east.

BLAST, GUNFIRE, RIOT

Thousands of people -- mainly Tamils -- have fled their homes in the east, taking shelter in schools, churches and other communal buildings, fearing new violence from their Sinhalese or Muslim neighbours. Some had previously fled during violence in January, but returned after a first round of talks were agreed.

But mostly, they are fleeing after suspected Tiger attacks on the military -- or, last Wednesday, on a Sinhalese fish market in Trincomalee -- fearing retaliation. Most Sinhalese and Muslims blame the Tigers for the deteriorating situation.

Riots in Trincomalee last weeks killed several Tamils, but heavy policing in the town and nightly curfews have eased the violence.

In nearby areas, some of the few where Tamil, Muslim and Sinhalese villages exist side by side, it is a different story.

Reuters briefly met displaced Tamils in Mutur yesterday, south of Trincomalee, who had fled their homes earlier in the day after a suspected Tiger claymore fragmentation mine killed a local Home Guard trooper.

Tamil homes were burnt, and some reports said one person was killed.

Nearby, a second claymore mine ripped through an army pickup truck, killing two and wounding two, one critically.

As the blast victims were brought into the nearest hospital, families wailed and screamed, and some Sinhalese residents were openly talking of looking to raise trouble.

Even in towns where attacks have not taken place, the mood is grim.

''If the trouble comes, I cannot say what will happen to the Tamil people here,'' said 24-year-old Muslim autorickshaw driver S.M. Fareet. ''I don't trust them. Some of them support the LTTE.''

Reuters