Japan envoy meets Lankan President, charges fly

Colombo, May 8: A top Japanese envoy met Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse today to try and salvage the island's battered peace process, as Tamil Tiger rebels accused the army of killing civilians.

A vicious spike of suspected rebel attacks, ethnic riots, land and sea clashes, government air strikes and unsolved killings of civilians have killed more than 200 in the last month, raising fears of a return to civil war.

TOday, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Web site accused the army of killing eight Hindu temple workers near the northern ethnic Tamil town of Jaffna, while the military said there had been several rebel attacks overnight.

The army said a curfew had been ordered in Jaffna and crossing points to rebel territory closed for unspecified ''security reasons'', but that it was only a temporary measure. One military source said it was to stop Tiger-backed demonstrations due to take place in northern government territory.

A military spokesman said the army had nothing to do with any temple killings, and that reports that eight bodies had been found could not be substantiated. Nordic monitors observing the fragile 2002 ceasefire said they had also not seen any bodies.

Diplomats say Japanese envoy Yasushi Akashi will deliver a strong message to both sides and warn the Tigers, when he visits them tomorrow, that further attacks and failure to attend talks might lead to a global crackdown on their fundraising and see them listed as terrorists by the European Union.

Analysts say neither side wants to be blamed for a new round of the island's two decade civil war, and both are eager to attract international sympathy.

A suspected Tiger grenade attack overnight in the eastern town of Batticaloa wounded seven policemen and a civilian, the army said, while six soldiers escaped unharmed after an ambush near the northwest coast.

Tiger rebels say they came under attack again overnight from fighters loyal to renegade eastern rebel commander Karuna Amman, and that they will attack his camps in army territory if the government does not rein him in.

The army denies backing Karuna.

''The government's refusal to rein in armed groups as pledged at (talks in) Geneva has been the primary cause of intensified violence and the stalemate in the peace talks,'' London-based chief rebel negotiator Anton Balasingham told Reuters in an email interview sent late yesterday. With some of Rajapakse's hardline allies accusing mediator Norway of being too soft on the Tigers, Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera visited India on Monday for high-level talks.

Analysts say Sri Lanka wants diplomatic support and weaponry.

Reuters

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