Reuters AlertNet Lite - S.Lanka, Tiger rebels commit to talks amid violence

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S.Lanka, Tiger rebels commit to talks amid violence

17 Oct 2006 14:52:00 GMT
Source: Reuters

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Military personnel stand guard near the wreckage of a van after a bomb blast in the government-controlled village of Periyarakulam, northern Vavuniya, October 10, 2006. Three civilians were killed and three others were injured when Tamil Tigers detonated a claymore mine fixed inside a van, the military said.
REUTERS/Stringer

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(Recasts with rebel comments)

By Y.P. Rajesh

COLOMBO, Oct 17 (Reuters) - The Sri Lankan government and Tamil Tiger insurgents reiterated their commitment on Tuesday to planned peace talks despite a deadly suicide attack blamed on the guerrillas and continued air raids on rebel territory.

But the worsening confrontation between the two sides only deepened pessimism over the talks due to be held in Geneva on Oct. 28-29, the second time they will be meeting this year after an earlier round in February failed to make progress.

Diplomats and analysts said the latest talks also seemed doomed even before they began due to the huge distrust.

Suspected rebels on Monday rammed an explosives-laden truck into a naval convoy near the town of Habarana, about 190 km (120 miles) northeast of the capital Colombo, in one of the worst suicide bombings on the troubled Indian Ocean island.

"No, there is no rethink. The president has reaffirmed that we will go ahead with the talks whatever," said Palitha Kohona, head of the government's Peace Secretariat.

"We will continue retaliating, taking action against them but we will go to the talks."

Kohona said the atmosphere was unpleasant and expectations had to be realistic when two sides involved in a bloody, nearly quarter-century conflict were heading for negotiations.

"Don't expect the world," he said. "But we hope something good will come of it."

Hundreds of people have been killed in spiralling violence in Sri Lanka since late July, and a truce brokered in 2002 with the now exists only on paper.

Last week, dozens of troops and rebels were killed and hundreds wounded in one of the deadliest battles since the truce.

More than 65,000 people have been killed since 1983 when the rebels began fighting for an independent Tamil homeland.

AIR STRIKES

Tiger military spokesman Rasiah Ilanthiraiyan echoed Kohona's sentiments and said the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) "remained committed to a negotiated settlement" to the civil war.

But he also accused the Sri Lankan air force of continuing to bomb civilian targets in rebel-held territory on Tuesday, which he said had wounded 15 people and damaged a rebel radio station and destroyed broadcasting equipment worth nearly $300,000.

"The Sri Lankan government has always tried to curb free media and this attack is a clear violation of the democratic process," Ilanthiraiyan told Reuters.

Earlier, the rebels had charged the air force of bombing a village late on Monday and killing three people, two of them children.

The Sri Lankan military, however, said the air strikes were all targeted at rebel bases and two sea bases and one land base, all in the northeast of the island, had been hit on Tuesday.

"The Air Force said the strikes had been precise. It is believed that the air strikes inflicted heavy damages to the terrorists," it said in a statement.

Monday's suicide attack came at the start of a week of hectic diplomacy aimed at ending the rash of fighting between the military and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Yasushi Akashi, the peace envoy of the island's chief financial donor, Japan, and Norway's special envoy Jon Hanssen-Bauer held talks with officials while U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher is also due this week.

Global concern over the violence has mounted and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan deplored it. The U.S. embassy in Colombo pressed the LTTE to "renounce the use of terror".

Asked if he expected any progress in Geneva, analyst Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu of the Colombo-based Centre for Policy Alternatives said: "No, that's the short answer.

"Both sides will go and make their usual speeches, accuse the other side of mala fide intentions, hark back to what they agreed the last time and how pledges have been broken," he said.

"I am not optimistic at all." (Additional reporting by Irwin Arieff in New York and Ranga Sirilal in Colombo)

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Last updated:Tue Oct 17 19:26:36 2006