Japan envoy visits Lanka as Tamil accusations fly

Colombo, May 8: Tamil Tiger rebels accused Sri Lanka's army of killing civilians today, ahead of a meeting between a top Japanese envoy and President Mahinda Rajapakse.

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) website 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.

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.

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.

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.

Diplomats say Japanese envoy Yasushi Akashi will deliver a strong message to both sides and warn the Tigers, when he visits them on Tuesday, that further attacks might lead to a global crackdown on their fundraising.

In his meeting today with Rajapakse, he is expected to raise the issues of human rights and the actions of renegade ex-rebels known as the Karuna group.

Tiger rebels say they came under attack again overnight from fighters loyal to former 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 today for high-level talks.

Analysts say Sri Lanka wants diplomatic support and weaponry.

Reuters

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