Sri Lanka rebels in mortar duel with army

Colombo, Jul 28: Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers and the army today battled with mortars in the island's restive east officials said, as the military again warned it would send in ground troops to take control of a rebel-held reservoir.

Mortars fell near an army camp and a school in the district of Trincomalee near the site of the disputed water tank, but no-one was injured, Defence Spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella said.

The military said the army responded in kind, which the rebels said injured three civilians.

Today's clash follows two days of bombings by the air force on Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) territory in the north east that killed six rebel fighters and injured 7 civilians.

''The LTTE are firing mortars,'' Rambukwella said. ''There is a designed plan to go in and gain access to the water tank sluice.

Ground troops are part of that plan.'' The government accuses the Tigers of choking the flow of water to thousands of majority Sinhalese farmers in government-held territory in the district of Trincomalee, where the government and rebels both control land.

The Tigers say Tamil civilians closed the reservoir sluice to demand that the government build water towers in Tamil areas.

The water spat is a symptom of a much wider chasm that separates the foes. The Tigers demand a separate homeland for ethnic Tamils in the north and east, and President Mahinda Rajapakse has flatly turned them down. Analysts and diplomats say a lasting peace deal is likely years away.

Hardline Buddhist monks in saffron robes vehemently opposed to the Tigers and allied Rajapakse took matters into their own hands today, and made their way towards the sluice gate.

''We have got possession of the sluice key,'' said Udaya Gammanpila, Deputy Secretary of the all-Buddhist monk party Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), adding hundreds of villagers had joined six monks there.

''The Tigers have no right to stop water reaching farmers,'' he said. ''The government is scared of the terrorists and is inactive, so we have taken it upon ourselves to address the needs of the people.'' Both the government and the Tigers claim control over the site of the reservoir, which lies in an area where the border between the foes is ill-defined. However the ground reality is that the Tigers control the area, military sources said.

Nordic truce monitors headed to the site of ths dispute today to hold talks separately with the rebels and the military.

Today's clash is the latest in a series of attacks and clashes between the military and the LTTE that many fear could rupture a 2002 ceasefire and reignite a war that has killed more than 65,000 people since 1983.

Truce monitors say more than 800 people have been killed so far this year alone.

REUTERS

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