Panicky Tamils scan skies for air raids in S.Lanka

KILINOCHCHI, Sri Lanka, June 15: Listening to a radio broadcast of the deadliest suspected Tamil rebel attack on Sri Lankan civilians since a 2002 ceasefire, visibly-shaken housewife Pathmavathy Kandasamy scoured the skies in panic.

Last month, air force jets dropped bombs just 2 miles (3 km) from her home on the outskirts of the northern rebel stronghold of Kilinochchi during a retaliatory strike amid escalating conflict between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Today, Kandasamy feared a direct hit after 61 civilians were killed when their bus was blown up in an ambush the government blamed squarely on the Tigers.

''I feel so nervous I could fall down dead,'' the mother of two said, standing next to her teenage daughter.

''Last month, I saw the fighter planes circle overhead before they dropped their bombs over there,'' she added, pointing towards the site of a rebel airfield. ''The LTTE want us to build bunkers.

But if there is aerial bombing, a bunker won't do much good.'' The government's fighter jets passed her by on Thursday, instead pounding rebel positions on the northeast coast.

But many here in the Tigers' nerve-centre fear it could just be a matter of time before the town is bombed and a two-decade war that killed more than 64,000 people is reignited.

''I am very worried and full of fear,'' said 24-year-old Srilingeswaran Sinnaiah, cycling through the scorching heat in Kilinochchi, where he works as a cameraman's assistant at the Tigers' television network.

''If the situation continues like this, we will not have any future,'' he said. ''If war starts again, we will definitely be in danger here. We'll have to join the Tigers and fight with them.

We'll have no alternative.''

Analysts and diplomats increasingly suspect the Tigers are spoiling for a full-blown war in their push for a separate homeland for ethnic Tamils in Sri Lanka's north and east, where the rebels now run a de facto state. With more than 650 dead so far this year in a series of military clashes, ambushes and shootings -- more than half of the fatalities civilians -- many argue war has already resumed, even if undeclared.

''The Sri Lankan government is definitely looking for a war,'' said S. Puleedevan, head of the Tigers' peace secretariat, blaming Thursday's bus attack on armed groups he describes as government-backed and trying to kill their fighters.

He said he had recieved reports many civilians had been killed by air force raids on Mullaithivu and Sampur in the northeast today, but had no fatality toll.

''We are committed to the peace process. But if war is thrust upon us, we are ready to face it.'' Many local residents continued to go about their daily lives in Kilinochchi despite the overhanging sense of fear. Children returned home from school, tractors loaded with bananas chugged through town, and traffic police kept a watchful eye.

''At the moment I have the freedom to study,'' said 17-year-old Niroth Jeyaratnaseelan, who is preparing for his A-levels. ''What worries me is whether I'll be able to continue if things go on like this.'' ''We just want to live with total freedom and peace,'' he added. ''But if peace talks fail as is happening now, war may become the only option.''

REUTERS