Sri Lanka rejects Norway deal with Tamil Tiger rebels

TRINCOMALEE (Sri Lanka): Sri Lanka on Sunday rejected peace broker Norway's deal with Tamil Tiger rebels to lift a water blockade at the root of the latest bloodshed that has claimed 425 lives by official count.

 

Troops began shelling suspected Tiger positions around Maavilaru in this north-eastern port district where the guerrillas blocked a sluice gate depriving water to some 15,000 farmer families downstream.

 

In Colombo, government spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella said they were not involved in Norway's talks with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam that led to the rebels announcing they will open the sluice gates.

 

"Water should not be a negotiating tool," Rambukwella said.

 

"We don't want terrorists to come and open the water way. They must simply allow irrigation engineers to do it, otherwise we will open it anyway."

 

He said Norway's peace envoy Jon Hanssen-Bauer had not consulted Colombo in cutting a deal with the Tigers.

 

"Hanssen-Bauer's discussions should have included us," said Rambukwella who is also the policy planning minister.

 

The LTTE's political wing leader SP Thamilselvan told Hanssen-Bauer that they will lift the water blockade, but warned of a return to full-scale war if the military launches new air strikes or artillery attacks against them.   

 

Journalists who tried to reach the Muslim town of Muttur, across the Koiya bay here, were turned back by troops who said the road was still mined and the guerrillas had fired at least two rounds of mortar bombs on Sunday morning.

 

The guerrillas were travelling to open the Maavilaru sluice gates as promised when they came under attack, Tiger spokesman S. Puleedevan told AFP from the rebel-held town of Kilinochchi.   

 

"We had informed the Sri Lankan government and clearance was obtained," Puleedevan said. "But, as they approached the area, there was heavy shelling and they can't open the sluice gates. Even the monitors had a narrow shave."   

 

Puleedevan said despite the provocation they were willing to consider opening the gates, but were now awaiting a response from Norway that had established urgent talks with Colombo over the new crisis.

 

Heavy fighting had raged since the military first carried out air strikes on July 26 and followed it with a ground offensive from July 31.

 

The Tigers also made it clear to Norway that any fresh air strikes or artillery attacks by security forces would be the end of a shaky truce in place since 2002 and would be regarded as Colombo's "declaration of war."

 

"If the government carries out any more air strikes or artillery attacks, we told Norway that we were afraid we will consider it as full-scale war in the future," another Tiger spokesman Velayudan Dayanidi said.

 

Diplomats close to the peace process said Hanssen-Bauer's meeting with the Tigers on Sunday morning was seen as a key breakthrough to end the bloodshed, but hopes were dashed with the government's rejection of the deal.

 

Even as Hanssen-Bauer arrived in Kilinochchi, the Tiger rebels said they had pulled back to their original positions in the Trincomalee district after a week of heavy combat.   

 

The rebels said 32 of their forces were killed during the weeks of fighting, far fewer than the 152 dead claimed by the defence ministry around Muttur late on Friday alone.

 

The Tigers deny a government claim they massacared around 100 Muslims and in turn accuse government forces of slaughtering 15 Tamil aid workers in Muttur near the site of the dam. 

 

The International Committee of the Red Cross said they had no access to the area and could not comment on the claims from either side.   

 

It has been the worst fighting in Sri Lanka since the 2002 truce was agreed. An estimated 60,000 people have been killed since the Tamil insurgency began around three decades ago.