Sri Lanka fears more ethnic clashes after killings

Colombo, Apr 24: Sri Lankan troops combed the area around a village in the island's northeast today as the suspected Tamil rebel killing of six Sinhalese farmers raised fears of more ethnic riots.

Some 100 people have died in just over two weeks after a series of suspected Tamil Tiger ambushes on the military were followed by attacks on Tamil civilians.

In theory, both sides say they are still working towards talks that were scheduled for last week in Switzerland, but are now indefinitely postponed, however diplomats say the peace process seems totally deadlocked and some fear a return to the island's two-decade civil war.

An army spokesman said troops had increased their presence around the village where the six farmers were shot dead late on Sunday, on the southern borders of the northeastern Trincomalee district. They said several other small incidents occurred overnight and in the morning, but reports were still coming in.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), whose fight for a Tamil homeland has killed more than 64,000 people on both sides, accuse the almost exclusively Sinhalese army of ''ethnic cleansing'' in the island's northeast, as well as increasingly frequent murders of Tamil civilians.

There is no doubt deaths are occurring, but analysts say it is the Tigers who are deliberately provoking confrontation to pressure the government in the knowledge that deeper ethnic divisions will ultimately drive more Tamils to their side.

Creating a backlash

''They want to say to the Tamils, we are your protectors,'' said Jehan Perera, national director for think-tank the National Peace Council. ''And they want to create a Sinhalese backlash that will ultimately help them.'' In the northeastern Trincomalee district, some Tamil villages are already completely abandoned. Tamil civilians load their belongings on to bullock carts, fleeing to schools or into LTTE territory where they say they feel safer.

But the diplomatic process of bringing the two sides to talks remains deadlocked over the much smaller issue of arranging the transport of eastern rebel leaders to a pre-talks meeting in their de facto capital, Kilinochchi.

The Tigers want a military helicopter to transport their leaders, the government has offered first a ship, then a small civilian helicopter, and now a larger civilian helicopter. Diplomats say neither side has been flexible enough.

Analysts say the Tigers are frustrated by the government failing to take any action after promising at the first round of talks in February to stop ''armed groups'' from operating in its territory.

That was seen as a reference to renegade ex-rebels led by former LTTE eastern commander Karuna Amman. The army denies supporting him, and the government says it cannot find his men to disarm.

With war fears rising, the government is seen as unlikely to take any action against a group that could be a useful ally against the Tigers in the east.

''My guess is that the LTTE are not keen on coming to talks which do not deal with their main concern, which is getting Karuna disarmed,'' said National Peace Council's Perera.

Reuters