Tamil tigers walk out of tsunami relief talks

Tamil Tiger rebels walked out of a meeting with Sri Lankan officials on the distribution of tsunami aid today after a strident opponent of the guerrillas showed up uninvited for the talks.

Members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam left the meeting in protest after a Marxist People’s Liberation Front (MP, Wasantha Piyatissa), attempted to join the negotiations in Ampara, 125 miles east of Colombo.

The JVP – a coalition partner of President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s government - is known for its vociferous opposition to the LTT.

“We welcome everyone who comes to help our people, but this JVP politician used tsunami assistance as a pretext to sow political hatred,” said the Tiger’s district political chief, E Kausalyan.

“We walked out objecting to his cheap political tactics,” Kausalyan said.

After weeks of bickering over how to handle relief and rehabilitation aid to the Tamil-majority north and east, the Tigers last week agreed to a three-tiered system of committees to review project proposals at the district, regional and political levels in Tamil areas.