Civil war suffering Sri Lanka urged to save truce

Colombo, Feb 22: Air raids, roadside blasts, suicide bombings, land and sea battles and thousands of people killed. So much for Sri Lanka's 2002 ceasefire between the army and Tamil Tigers.

The tattered pact turned five years old today and as the foes ignore repeated calls by the international community to halt a new chapter of a two-decade civil war, analysts fear the bloodshed will only get worse.

The war has killed an estimated 67,000-68,000 people since 1983 and displaced hundreds of thousands of people.

Mediator Norway today called on both sides to respect the truce, but warned the onus is on President Mahinda Rajapakse's government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to halt the renewed fighting.

''Massive human rights abuses, grave humanitarian suffering and the displacement of over 200,000 people are among the results,'' Erik Solheim, Norwegian Minister of Development Cooperation, said in a statement.

''It is the responsibility of the parties to put a stop to this and to demonstrate the political will to reach a lasting settlement,'' he added.

Both sides claim to respect the truce pact and accuse the other of breaking it.

At the same time, the government has vowed to wipe out the Tigers' entire military machine and has driven the rebels out of a key eastern enclave they controlled under the terms of the truce.

The Tigers have resumed their fight for an independent state in the north and east, and suspected rebel bombers have killed hundreds of people in a series of ambushes.

CIVILIANS SUFFERING

Civilians caught in the cross-fire are paying a heavy price. An estimated 1,300 civilians have been killed in the past year alone.

''It looks as if our days are numbered,'' said 64-year-old Sivanesan Sundaralingam, a retired school principal in the besieged northern Jaffna peninsula, which is cut off from the rest of the island by rebel lines. Residents are trapped.

Suspected Tigers have carried out a number of bomb and grenade attacks on the peninsula in recent months, and the military and rebels fight sporadic artillery duels. Food and basic goods are in short supply. Some civilians now have to walk barefoot, unable to find shoes their size.

''Unlike earlier, this time we have nowhere to go -- in addition to the killings and abductions,'' he added. ''Our life is in total danger from all sides.'' The government has vowed to produce a power-sharing proposal within weeks aimed at ending the conflict.

But Rajapakse has flatly rejected the Tigers' demands for a separate homeland for minority Tamils in the north and east, and many fear the gap between the two sides is too far to bridge.

In the meantime, residents and observers say both sides are amassing forces near a shared border on the Jaffna peninsula, and fear fighting could break out.

''The ceasefire only remains on paper. There is a change in the character of the intensity of (the war),'' said Iqbal Athas, an analyst with Jane's Defence Weekly.

''The intensification will only mean that there'll be a bigger bloodbath.'' ''In two decades of fighting, if there is one fact that has been proved, it's that there is no all-out winner.''

REUTERS

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