Sri Lanka ignores rebel war threat, vows to push on

TRINCOMALEE, Sri Lanka, Aug 7: Sri Lanka's army vowed today to push on with a campaign to wrest control of an eastern water supply from Tamil Tigers, just hours after the rebels warned its continued attacks were a declaration of war.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) offered yesterday to end a fortnight-long blockade of water to government land to defuse the heaviest fighting since a 2002 ceasefire, but the army replied with heavy artillery and multi-barrel rockets.

The Tigers said they retaliated against army artillery and mortar fire near a disputed sluice gate early today, but the military denied firing, saying that troops were still trying to clear landmines in the area.

''There was an offensive launched by the Sri Lankan government today early morning, using artillery and mortars,'' S. Puleedevan, head of the Tigers' peace secretariat, told Reuters by telephone from the northern rebel stronghold of Kilinochchi.

''If they launch an offensive, we will retaliate. We are ready to open the sluice without any conditions. The problem is when the Sri Lankan army is firing mortars and launching offensive attacks,it is very difficult to go to that location.'' Separately, suspected Tiger rebels ambushed and killed a top elite police commando with a claymore mine in the ancient central hill capital of Kandy early today, bomb squad officers said.

The government says the Tigers must vacate the area around the blocked water sluice, land both sides claim is theirs under the truce.

''We consider this a declaration of war and strongly condemn the attitude of the government,'' Tiger political wing leader S.P. Thamilselvan told Reuters via satellite phone yesterday.

The Tigers have halted offensive operations and pulled back to their pre-ceasefire positions.

OFFER SPURNED

As the head of the unarmed Nordic-staffed ceasefire monitoring mission, retired Swedish Major General Ulf Henricsson, headed towards the sluice gate with a rebel leader to reopen it yesterday, army artillery opened fire. ''It seems some people want war rather than water,'' Henricsson said.

Norwegian peace envoy Jon Hanssen-Bauer left Kilinochchi today after his abortive peace bid.

Well over 800 people had been killed so far this year even before recent fighting in which the military say they killed over 150 rebels and in which dozens of civilians are said to be dead.

The Tigers said another 15 civilians were also killed in government shelling of rebel areas in the northeast yesterday.

After days of rumours, 15 local aid workers from French NGO Action Contre La Faim helping with relief after the 2004 tsunami were yesterday confirmed executed in the eastern town of Mutur -- which has been devastated by fighting and artillery fire south of the port of Trincomalee.

''We found their office trashed and found 15 individuals ...

lying face down dead in their compound,'' said Jeevan Thiagarajah, Executive Director of aid group umbrella body the Consortium for Humanitarian Agencies (CHA).

Action Contre La Faim was trying to recover the bodies, but movement is very limited in the conflict zone. Ambulances are so overstretched the dead are simply being dumped under trees.

A pro-rebel website blamed government forces for the killings of the aid workers in Mutur, scene of days of fierce fighting that forced most of the population to flee. The military accused the Tigers, and aid workers said it was unclear who was to blame.

Around 21,000 newly displaced people -- most of them Muslims -- have been registered so far, and local community leaders say thousands more have been forced from their homes.

Reuters

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