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COLOMBO: Sri Lanka's military fought mortar and artillery duels with Tamil Tigers in the island's north and east on Friday as the rebels warned of low expectations at peace talks due later this month.
The military said the Tigers had attacked their frontline positions in the restive eastern district of Batticaloa and in the besieged army-held northern Jaffna peninsula, which is cut off from the rest of the island by rebel territory.
“Around 0400 there was a massive attack on our forward defence line in Mankerni (in Batticaloa), so we retaliated and pushed them back,” said military spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe. “This is a major offensive by the rebels.”
“There are a lot of Tamil Tiger casualties lying near the forward defence line,” he added. “There are thousands of civilians stuck in that area.”
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were not immediately available for comment on the clashes.
Police Special Task Force troopers said they had overheard Tiger radio communications saying that 20 of their fighters had been killed by members of breakaway rebel faction that truce monitors suspect elements of the military are helping to mount attacks, but there was no way to confirm the clash.
Tigers political wing leader S.P. Thamilselvan said the rebels expected little to come out of talks planned in late October, and warned violence would spread across the island if attacks by the military continued.
“Although we do not hold high hopes, we are ready to respect the call (for talks) and give it a chance,” Thamilselvan told Reuters in an email interview.
But he warned: “As far as we are concerned, when our homeland is crushed, and our people's habitats are destroyed, this war will definitely spread throughout the island.”
The rebels have threatened to withdraw from the truce completely if attacks by the military continue, while the government says it reserves the right to retaliate if the Tigers attack security forces.
The government says the talks will take place in Geneva on Oct 28-30. The Tigers wanted to go to Oslo and have not yet said whether they agree on the venue.
President Mahinda Rajapakse's minority government, which has been trying to build consensus among the majority southern Sinhalese on how to resolve the conflict, said on Friday the main opposition United National Party has agreed to collaborate with it both in and outside parliament.
But some analysts — and many ordinary Sri Lankans — believe the time is not right for talks between the foes given the intensity of fighting, and fear the war could escalate.
Each side accuses the other of trying to rekindle a two-decade conflict that has killed more than 65,000 people since 1983, and Nordic truce monitors see little will from either side to halt the violence.
Analysts suspect the Tigers have agreed to talks to buy time to regroup after a series of military defeats and fierce aerial bombing, artillery and rocket fire by the security forces.
