Sri Lanka rebels warn EU ban to hurt peace bid

Colombo, May 30 : Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels today warned that a European Union ban that diplomats say will freeze their assets would shake the island's teetering peace process, but said they remained committed to a truce.

The 25-nation bloc listed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as a banned terrorist organisation on Monday, a move that came after a sharp escalation of attacks and clashes with Sri Lanka's military.

The Tigers had earlier said proscription would deter them from returning to talks aimed at permanently halting a two-decade civil war and would ''exacerbate the conditions of war''.

But they now want the EU to sanction the government, which they accuse of helping a band of former comrades to attack them.

''This ban is not going to help to promote the peace process,'' S Puleedevan, head of the Tigers' peace secretariat, told Reuters from the northern rebel stronghold of Kilinochchi.

''This is really going to disturb the parity of status of the parties, which is very fundamental for the peace process,'' he added. ''This is really going to shake the fundamentals.'' The ban is a diplomatic slap in the face for the rebels, who have sought to project an image abroad as viable leaders of a de facto state they want recognised as a separate homeland for ethnic Tamils in the island's north and east.

The United States, Britain, Canada and India have already outlawed the Tigers.

Analysts say an EU freeze on assets would hurt the war chest of the Tigers, who have used past trips to Europe during peace talks to raise funds from expatriate Tamils.

''We are hopeful that this ban ... would persuade the Tamil Tigers to come in and talk to the government,'' said senior presidential aide Ajith Nivard Cabraal.

''One of the main ingredients of any activity of a terrorist group would be the money that they have, and if that dries up, it is going to hamper that work,'' Nivard Cabraal said.

''Hopefully that would act as a deterrent.''

DONORS MEET

The island's main donors Japan, Norway, the United States and the European Union -- who together have pledged 4.5 billion dollars to foster peace in Sri Lanka, warned in Tokyo today that future aid would only flow if both sides honour a 2002 truce.

''As long as the commitment to the ceasefire agreement by both parties is proven by way of their actions, the international community will continue its assistance,'' the donors said in a joint statement.

''LTTE must re-enter the negotiating process. It must renounce terrorism and violence,'' they added. ''(The government) must immediately prevent groups based in its territory from carrying out violence and acts of terrorism.'' Japan may also freeze Tiger assets if violence continues.

More than 290 soldiers, police, civilians and rebels have been killed in a rash of attacks, from suicide bombings to naval clashes, since February in what the truce monitors and Tigers now call a ''low intensity war''.

Police said that, in the latest burst of violence, suspected Tigers shot dead 12 majority Sinhalese labours in the restive east on Monday. The rebels denied any involvement.

The Tigers accuse the military of helping a breakaway band of former comrades to kill their fighters and murder ethnic Tamil civilians, and security analysts see a pattern of tit-for-tat attacks between the military and the rebels.

''Now the time has come for the EU to prove that they are even-handed and they will also exert pressure on the Sri Lankan government side for the atrocities committed by the armed forces and paramilitary groups,'' Puleedevan said.

Many ordinary Sri Lankans already displaced by years of war fear a return to a full-scale conflict that killed more than 64,000 people before the ceasefire.

Reuters