Sri Lanka 'could return to war'

A Tamil rebel leader today warned that Sri Lanka could slip back into civil war unless the government stops backing armed groups that the rebels claim are attacking them.

Anton Balasingham, the London-based chief negotiator for the Tamil Tiger rebels, accused the government of paying and providing logistics support to five paramilitary groups, allowing the armed forces to “sustain a shadow war” against the Tigers, according to the pro-rebel Tamilnet website.

He called the alleged strategy a “grave violation of the truce agreement that could rekindle the civil war.”

Sri Lanka’s government and the Tamil Tigers agreed to a cease-fire in February 2002, halting a 19-year-old civil war which killed 65,000 people.

However, the Tigers claim that a renegade faction that broke away in March 2004 has launched attacks against the main rebel group with the support of government forces. Scores of people have been killed since the split, mainly in the east, a Tamil Tiger stronghold.

“The Sri Lankan military should assume direct responsibility for the bloody internecine warfare that is threatening the current peace process,” Balasingham said.

The government has denied supporting the breakaway faction.

Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam rebels began fighting in 1983 to create a separate state for ethnic minority Tamils, accusing majority Sinhalese of discrimination.

A Norway-brokered cease-fire halted the conflict but peace talks broke down a year later when the rebels withdrew over their demand for greater autonomy in the north and east of the country.