Sri Lanka to suffer, face backlash for crack down-Rebels

COLOMBO, Dec 7 (Reuters) Sri Lankans will suffer and the government will face a backlash for reinstating the island's Prevention of Terrorism Act to crack down on the Tamil Tigers and their supporters, the rebels said today.

The act, which has been dormant since a 2002 ceasefire, gives police and the security forces wide powers to arrest, search and interrogate.

It has been re-imposed after a surge in suicide attacks and clashes with the Tigers that have left the truce in tatters.

''The ceasefire agreement put this draconian act to sleep for a while. Now the dragon is given life,'' Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) media coordinator Daya Master told Reuters by telephone from the rebels' northern stronghold.

''It is nothing but natural that Tamil youths, not necessarily the LTTE alone, would resort to armed defence again,'' he added. ''What the government has actually done is restart a vicious cycle. It is the nation and the people who are going to suffer.'' The government held back from an outright ban on the Tigers, but yesterday it unveiled new emergency regulations prohibiting supporting or assisting the rebels or giving information detrimental to national security. Those found guilty faced up to 20 years' jail.

Nordic truce monitors said reinstating the act went against the terms of the truce.

''Just by implementing the Prevention of Terrorism Act is a violation of the ceasefire agreement,'' said Thorfinnur Omarsson, spokesman for the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, which oversees a truce that now holds only on paper.

''We worry that this might distance the parties even more,'' he added. ''But then both sides have been violating the ceasefire agreement nearly every day, so it begs the question: where does the agreement stand?'' The government and the Tigers say they continue to honour the pact and each accuses the other of trying to trigger a return to all-out war.

But on the ground, more than 3,000 civilians, troops and rebel fighters have been killed so far this year. Air strikes, suicide attacks and major artillery battles are increasingly commonplace, and few are in any doubt the island's two-decade civil war has already resumed.

President Mahinda Rajapakse, whose brother Gotabhaya narrowly escaped injury in a suicide attack in the capital last week, vowed to eradicate terrorism but said the door remained open to peace talks if the Tigers come in earnest.

''Our government decided to reactivate provisions of the Prevention of Terrorism Act to face this cruel and senseless terrorism,'' Rajapakse said in a televised national address late yesterday. ''We have no path left but its total defeat.'' ''I ask this of all political parties, all media, and all people's organizations. You decide whether you should be with a handful of terrorists or with the common man who is in the majority. You must clearly choose between these two sides. No one can represent both these sides at any one time.'' Rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran last week declared the Tigers were resuming their independence struggle. Analysts say this means the island's long-running conflict, which has killed more than 67,000 people since 1983, will likely escalate.

REUTERS PB BS1312