COLOMBO, 11 October 2006 — Tamil Tiger rebels said yesterday they were ready to resume peace negotiations with the Sri Lankan government but would reconsider if security forces kept up attacks against them.
The rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) told peace broker Norway that they agreed to two days of talks starting Oct. 28 at a venue in Switzerland.
“We are ready for talks, and agreed to the venue and date,” the LTTE’s political wing chief S.P. Thamilselvan said in a statement posted on their official website.
“However, if the military aggression continues, we will be forced to reconsider the decision,” he later told the pro-rebel Tamilnet.com website.
Both sides agreed last month to resume their talks and end an eight-month deadlock in negotiations, but failed to agree on a venue with Sri Lanka proposing Switzerland and the Tigers saying it should be in Norway.
Even as peace moves were under way, the government and Tamil Tigers have kept up attacks against each other in the island’s embattled north and the east.
Norway is working to save a tattered 2002 truce and end a spiral of violence which has claimed more than 1,500 lives since December.
Meanwhile, army forces killed 20 Tamil Tigers in fierce fighting in eastern Sri Lanka as they increased their control over the area, a spokesman said yesterday, while the military reportedly rushed rockets and mortars to its northern defense line.
Brig. Prasad Samarasinghe said that troops battled the rebels for two days starting Sunday in Trincomalee district after the Tigers intensified activities in the area, posing a threat to a strategic naval base and local residents. He did not elaborate on the rebel activities.
“The army has chased away Tamil Tigers from that area and the army is now dominating the area,” he told a news conference in the capital, Colombo. The fighting took place in the Manirasakulam and Raikuli areas of Trincomalee. There was no immediate comment from the rebels.
Separately, Samarasinghe accused the rebels of attacking the military’s defense line in the northern Jaffna Peninsula. One soldier was killed overnight and four wounded in the attack near the area of Muhamalai.
“The threat to Muhamalai defense line in Jaffna is still continuing. They are firing artillery and mortars toward our troops there.” he said.
Suspected rebels detonated a bomb yesterday in Vavuniya, the northernmost government-held garrison town before rebel-held territory, killing three people and wounding three others, said police spokesman Kumara Sandanayake. He said police believed the bomb was hidden in a vehicle. A house was also damaged by the blast.
Meanwhile the pro-rebel website said the army has rushed rockets, mortar shells and other military hardware to its forward defense lines in Jaffna.
Truckloads of military hardware were moved Monday from Palali, the army’s main Jaffna base, closer to areas in the south of the peninsula which are controlled by the Tamil Tiger rebels, Tamil.net reported late Monday.
“Consignments of artillery ammunition, mortar shells, and rockets were rushed in heavy military vehicles” to several areas along the defense lines, the website reported.
The military controls almost all of the Jaffna Peninsula, but small pockets are held by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, which claim the peninsula as the cultural heart of the country’s ethnic Tamil minority.
Fighting since Aug. 12 over the peninsula has cut off a major highway linking it to the mainland.
The allegation comes after the rebels’ political wing said at the weekend that reliable intelligence suggests the military is preparing to launch a major attack on rebel and civilian settlements in the north.
