Civil war, suffering Sri Lanka urged to save truce

COLOMBO, Feb 22 (Reuters) Air raids, roadside blasts, suicide bombings, land and sea battles and thousands killed. So much for the 2002 ceasefire between Sri Lanka's army and the Tamil Tigers.

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

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

Mediator Norway called on both sides today to respect the truce, but said the onus was 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 and accuse the other of breaking it.

Hardline majority Sinhalese nationalist Buddhist monks in saffron robes and pro-hardline Marxist demonstrators took to the streets on Thursday to demand an end to the pact.

''End the ceasefire immediately,'' screamed one banner.

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 caught in the crossfire are paying a heavy price. An estimated 1,300 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,'' Sundaralingam 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 Tiger demands for a separate homeland for minority Tamils in the north and east, and many fear the gap between the two sides is too great to bridge.

In the meantime, residents and observers say both sides are amassing forces near a de facto 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 BDP SSC1647