Sri Lanka political killings threaten peace: UN

Colombo, Apr 28: Sri Lanka's government and Tamil Tiger rebels are doing too little to crack down on extrajudicial killings, the United Nations said today, warning the murders were fuelling a worsening conflict.

Sri Lanka's 2002 truce is under more strain than ever after suspected Tiger attacks on the military, ethnic riots and a string of killings were followed by a suicide attack on army headquarters in Colombo and retaliatory air strikes.

''Every such killing represents a major setback to the peace process, and every retaliatory death plays into the hands of those whose interests do not lie in the restoration of peace,'' said UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary executions Professor Philip Alston.

Each side blames the other for the deteriorating situation, and both deny involvement in civilian killings. Alston said he was not convinced by either.

He said in a report he found the repeated Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) denials of attacks on the army unconvincing, and also said there was circumstantial evidence the army was backing renegade ex-rebels led by former Tiger commander Karuna Amman.

The army denies backing Karuna, but the Tigers appear to retaliate for killings by his men by attacking the military.

''The Special Rapporteur reported a dangerous indifference on the part of the government to other armed elements responsible for attacks, including the Karuna group,'' a U.N.

statement said.

Murders by both sides have been a frequent feature of the island's two-decade-old civil war, which has killed more than 64,000. In violence in December and January, and then again in April, dozens of mainly Tamils have been killed.

Alston said he also believed the island's Nordic truce monitors, the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, had taken too narrow a mandate and should do more than simply record the killings. The truce monitors say they increasingly believe the armed forces may carry out killings in retaliation for rebel attacks.

Alston said the fact that peace talks due to take place in Switzerland last week had been postponed indefinitely did not mean the two sides could not clamp down on killings.

''The dangerous escalation of the conflict in recent days is a direct consequence of killings being allowed to run unchecked,'' he said.

REUTERS