SL fighting rages as rebels play down talks hopes

Colombo, Oct 6: Sri Lanka's military fought mortar and artillery duels with Tamil Tigers in the island's north and east today as the rebels warned of low expectations at peace talks due later this month.

The military said the Tigers had attacked army positions in the restive eastern district of Batticaloa and along the frontline that separates the besieged army-held northern Jaffna peninsula from rebel territory.

Police Special Task Force troopers said they had overheard Tiger radio communications saying that 20 of their fighters had been killed by members of breakaway rebel faction that truce monitors suspect elements of the military are helping to mount attacks, but there was no way to confirm the clash.

The political wing leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), S.P. Thamilselvan, said the rebels expected little to come out of talks planned in late October, and warned violence would spread across the island if attacks by the military continued.

''Although we do not hold high hopes, we are ready to respect the call (for talks) and give it a chance,'' Thamilselvan told Reuters in an email interview.

But he warned: ''As far as we are concerned, when our homeland is crushed, and our people's habitats are destroyed, this war will definitely spread throughout the island.'' The rebels have threatened to withdraw from the truce completely if attacks by the military continue, while the government says it reserves the right to retaliate if the Tigers attack security forces.

The government says the talks will take place in Geneva on October 28-30. The Tigers wanted to go Oslo and have not yet said whether they agree on the venue.

Some analysts -- and many ordinary Sri Lankans -- believe the time is not right for talks given the intensity of fighting, and fear the war could escalate.

Each side accuses the other of trying to rekindle a two-decade conflict that has killed more than 65,000 people since 1983, and Nordic truce monitors see little will from either side to halt the violence.

Analysts suspect the Tigers have agreed to talks to buy time to regroup after a series of military defeats and fierce aerial bombing, artillery and rocket fire by the security forces.

The Tigers vow their struggle for a separate homeland in north and east Sri Lanka will not end until they have evicted the military from the strategic Jaffna peninsula, where around 40,000 troops are stationed, the strategic northeastern harbour of Trincomalee and swathes of territory in the island's east.

Reuters

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