Tigers issue new warning over fragile truce

Yeung Sum (R), chairman of Democratic Party campaigns in Hong Kong Island yesterday, one day before the legislative elections. Hong Kong goes to the polls today in a legislative election seen more as a gauge of sentiment towards the city's Chinese rulers and a referendum on its democratic aspirations. PHOTO: AFP

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said members of the security forces took part in an attack on a Tiger outpost earlier in the week.

"There is a general fear and suspicion that the Sri Lankan army is in fact engaged in ceasefire violations... to provoke the LTTE and thereby leading to disruption of the entire peace process," the Tigers said in a copy of the letter to the truce monitors posted Saturday on their website.

The military has denied staging attacks.

The letter to the Norwegian-led Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission came as Oslo was set to send a top envoy, Erik Solheim, Monday to try and jump start stalled negotiations between Colombo and the Tigers.

Diplomats said Solheim would try to revive the talks put on hold in April last year when the Tigers pulled out after six rounds of face-to-face discussions.

"He will have meetings with President Chandrika Kumaratunga, members of the government of Sri Lanka, representatives of the opposition as well as with civil society," Norway's embassy said in a statement Friday.

It said Solheim would have consultations in the rebel-held town of Kilinochchi with the leader of the LTTE political Wing, S.P. Thamilselvan.

The govenment and the Tamils are observing an Oslo-brokered truce since February 2002 but their talks remain suspended.

Four previous attempts to end the bloodshed resulted in more fighting in a conflict which has claimed more than 60,000 lives between 1972 and 2002.

Earlier report says Sri Lanka's peacebroker Norway is sending an envoy here next week to try to revive peace talks with Tamil Tiger rebels on the second anniversary of Oslo-brokered negotiations stalled since last year, diplomats said.

Envoy Erik Solheim arrives here Monday. He will travel to the rebel-held north Thursday, the second anniversary of the face-to-face peace talks that opened at the Thai naval base of Sattahip.

Diplomats said Solheim will try to jumpstart the negotiations suspended in April 2003 when the Tigers pulled out after six rounds of discussions.

"He will have meetings with President Chandrika Kumaratunga, members of the government of Sri Lanka, representatives of the opposition as well as with civil society," the Norwegian embassy here said in a statement.

It said Solheim and Norwegian ambassador Hans Brattskar will have consultations Thursday in rebel-held Kilinochchi town with the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam's (LTTE) political wing, S.P. Thamilselvan.