Group threatens attacks on Sri Lanka civilians

Colombo, Nov 11: A suspected front for Tamil Tiger rebels vowed today to kill majority Sinhalese civilians in southern Sri Lanka in retaliation for the army bombing of a refugee camp this week that killed dozens of minority Tamils.

The High Security Zone Residents' Liberation Force, which has claimed responsibility for a rash of deadly attacks on troops, made its threat a day after a pro-rebel Tamil MP was slain in the capital.

''Ultimately it would be the Sinhala people who will pay the price for the actions of their sons and daughters occupying the Tamil motherland,'' the group, which claims to represent Tamils displaced by army high security zones in the northern army-held Jaffna peninsula, said in a statement faxed to Reuters.

''On several occasions we had warned of every action having an equal and opposite reaction. We regret the retaliatory measures that have been forced upon us, and extend our early condolences to the victims.'' The group had also previously threatened to hit hospitals and infrastructure in the south.

Tamil Tiger rebels say 47 people were killed in Wednesday's attack on the camp, set up in a school in rebel-held territory in the eastern district of Batticaloa. Nordic truce monitors counted 23 corpses, but do not rule out a higher figure.

The international community has voiced outrage at the shelling, and called on the government and the rebels to respect human rights and safeguard thousands of civilians caught in the middle of the two-decade conflict.

Survivors say the rebels provoked the attack by firing heavy guns from near the camp, and the foes accuse each other of using civilians as human shields.

Aid workers and truce monitors say around 30,000-35,000 civilians - most of whom were displaced from their homes further north when fighting flared in August -- are trapped in the area.

Foreign nations form the United States to India to peace mediator Norway have called on both sides to halt violence threatening to plunge the island into a full-blown return to a conflict that has killed more than 65,000 people since 1983.

They condemned the assassination of Nadarajah Raviraj, a prominent human rights lawyer and MP for the Tamil National Alliance -- widely seen as the Tigers' proxy in parliament -- who was gunned down in Colombo yesterday as he headed to court.

That attack in turn came hours after naval clashes off the north and east coasts in which the military said it sank a total of 24 rebel boats - a claim rejected by the Tigers.

President Mahinda Rajapakse, under increasing international pressure to solve a rash of extrajudicial killings, massacres and abductions blamed on both sides, has called for Scotland Yard to investigate Raviraj's murder.

The TNA has accused government forces or forces aligned to it for the killing.

''The president told us that he invited a London-based investigation team, but I don't know it has materialised or not. We are not satisfied,'' said fellow TNA MP Mavai Senadhirajah.

The government flatly rejects the Tigers' demand for a separate homeland for minority Tamils in the island's north and east, where they already run a de facto state, and any meaningful peace deal is seen years off at best.

REUTERS

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