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| Sri Lanka |
| Sri Lankan rebels vow to neutralise renegades |
| 2006-05-09 |
| Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers have vowed to raid government territory to kill former comrades they say are attacking their fighters with the help of the military, warning peace talks are off until those renegade attacks stop. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) are locked in a low intensity conflict with the military that threatens to rupture a 2002 truce and rekindle a two-decade civil war. They want the government to disarm a breakaway faction led by a former rebel commander called Karuna. “The government’s refusal to rein in armed groups as pledged at (talks in) Geneva has been the primary cause of intensified violence and the stalemate in the peace talks,” London-based chief rebel negotiator Anton Balasingham on Sunday. “Since the government has out rightly denied the very existence of Karuna group in government controlled areas and refused to disarm them, the LTTE has no choice other than to take the responsibility on itself and neutralise Karuna’s armed men.” Karuna, widely viewed as shadowy rebel supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran’s top commander before he split with the mainstream Tigers in 2004, has formed a political movement and wants to eventually supplant the Tigers. He refuses to disarm. “The unbridled violence unleashed against the Tamil civilians by Tamil paramilitaries and the state’s armed forces has now become the critical issue overshadowing the peace process,” Balasingham said. The government denies the military is helping Karuna, but many diplomats are increasingly sceptical. |
| Posted by:Fred |