COLOMBO, Nov 21: Suspected Tamil rebels have escalated killings despite fresh pressure from the United States on Sri Lanka's warring parties to end a 19-month deadlock in peace talks, officials said on Sunday.
A former military informant was gunned down in the north-eastern district of Trincomalee on Saturday night in what military officials said was a killing carried out by the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
"We are seeing an increase in attacks," a military official said. "There had also been a grenade attack against a Tiger office (Saturday) night, but no one was hurt in that."
Saturday's shooting came as US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage condemned recent attacks by Tamil Tiger rebels as an "assault" on the Norwegian-backed peace process and urged all sides to resume talks.
The US State Department said in Washington on Friday that Armitage conveyed the message in phone calls to Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga and opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe.
Armitage "strongly condemned recent terrorist actions of the LTTE that fly in the face of efforts by all other Sri Lankans and the international community to bring peace to this war-torn country," deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said. However, Kumaratunga's government appeared to be at odds with peace broker Norway which sent Foreign Minister Jan Petersen earlier this month to try to save the process.
The Sunday Times newspaper here reported that Kumaratunga complained to Armitage that Oslo was mounting pressure on her government, but was not doing the same with the Tigers.
"The President complained that the recent Norwegian peace delegation to Colombo had applied pressure on her, while not doing the same to the rebels," it said. There was no immediate word from Kumaratunga's office, but a government statement on Friday hinted that there may be problems between the peace broker and Colombo.
"Disagreements between the government of Sri Lanka and the government of Norway on the approach to the peace talks have to be resolved by discussion," a government statement said on Friday.
"Such discussions have taken place and will continue to take place when the occasion for them arises." Colombo on Friday accused the LTTE of breaking the Norwegian- arranged ceasefire by killing a government soldier and a military informant a day earlier.
The government said the killing of a soldier from the military intelligence unit and an informant had all the "hallmarks" of the LTTE, a position supported by Armitage. "This is a direct violation of the ceasefire agreement which calls on the parties not to engage in assassinations," Colombo said. "The continuing violations cast doubts on the seriousness of the commitment of the LTTE."
The statement said it also raised doubts about the LTTE's interest in observing the Norwegian-led peace initiative aimed at ending three decades of ethnic bloodshed that has claimed over 60,000 lives.
Suspected Tiger gunmen shot and wounded another rival in the island's north On Friday, but two children were killed by stray bullets, officials said. The government has accused the Tigers of killing more than 250 rivals, including military informants, since the Norwegian-brokered ceasefire went into effect from February 23, 2002.
Although Norway's attempts to salvage the peace process earlier this month ended in failure, both sides have pledged in talks with the Norwegians that they will abide by the ceasefire agreement. -AFP
