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Tamil Tiger killings raise fears for tsunami relief work
COLOMBO - The killing of a senior Tamil Tiger and five others has cast a shadow over Sri Lanka's post-tsunami reconstruction, which was already engulfed in bickering between the government and the guerrillas.
"Hey Sarge, we done here?"
"Yeah, Tyrone, pack up and head out."
The reconstruction programme, which is yet to really take off, will be further hit if Monday's killings trigger more internecine clashes with retaliation from the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), officials said. "Such killings are the last thing we want," said Lalith Weeratunga, secretary to Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse. "Just when things were moving on the reconstruction front, this incident has occurred which can throw post-tsunami work out of gear if clashes intensify."
You might say.
E. Koushalyan, the LTTE's political wing leader for the eastern province, was killed in an ambush along with four other senior rebels and former Tamil legislator Chandra Nehru on Monday night. Koushalyan is the most senior Tamil Tiger to be gunned down since the rebels and troops began observing a truce, which Norway brokered in February 2002. Talks have been deadlocked since April 2003.

The government military officials say the attack was carried out by a breakaway faction of the Tamil Tigers led by the former number two in the leadership, known as Karuna. The LTTE, however, has pointed the finger at the army, while the government said the killings had breached a ceasefire in the decades-old ethnic conflict and heightened the risk of a return to war. The pro-rebel Tamilnet.com said the killers were dressed in military uniforms, which took the rebels by surprise.
Um, how?
Sources claim the shoot-out had angered the Tigers who were keen to avenge the deaths, but were being restrained by pressure from abroad. The head of the rebels' political wing, S.P. Thamilselvan, skipped a meeting on Tuesday with the Asian Development Bank, the Japan Bank for International Cooperation and the World Bank to discuss relief programs. "Such violent incidents divert the state machinery's attention which at the moment needs to be focussed on tsunami reconstruction," said the prime minister's secretary Weeratunga. He told AFP that project implementation would be severely hit if clashes rise as "moving people to execute projects would be difficult in case violence breaks out."

"How can you construct nearly 120,000 houses for the affected people if there is going to be violence and let us understand that the east is one of the worst affected by the tsunamis," Weeratunga said.

For its part, the LTTE also said the killings would hamper relief work. "We fear that these killings would have a serious impact on the humanitarian relief work undertaken now," the rebels said in a statement late Tuesday.

Relations between the government and the rebels have deteriorated over aid distribution across the regions controlled by the rebels. The rebels have accused the government of dragging its feet on setting up a joint mechanism to distribute aid, a move backed by Norway. Front organisations of the LTTE have often accused the government forces of harassment while handling aid materials in Tamil-dominated areas.

Military analyst Harry Gunatillake said the post-tsunami work may be affected if the relations worsen. "In the immediate future there may not be any reaction to the killings, but if clashes increase there could be delays," he said.
Brilliant, Harry, brilliant.

Posted by: Steve White 2005-02-09
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=55947