Tamil rebels and govt troops in heavy clashes

Heavy fighting broke out in northeastern Sri Lanka today between Tamil rebels and government troops seeking to end a rebel blockade of a reservoir, and at least five soldiers were killed, officials said.

The clashes came after the Tamil Tiger political leader in the area declared the country’s 2002 ceasefire over, although the government said it remained committed to the accord and that its assault in Trincomalee was a humanitarian mission to restore the area’s water supply.

“Yes, heavy fighting is on,” government spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella said.

Five soldiers died and six were wounded, according to military spokesman, Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe.

The rebels earlier this month shut the reservoir sluice gate in their territory near Trincomalee, cutting water to 60,000 people living in villages in nearby government-controlled territory. They said it was retaliation for the government’s reneging on a promise to build a water tower for adjacent areas under the rebels’ authority.

Earlier, a Tiger leader in Trincomalee said the government troops were trying to enter rebel territory in that area, amounting to what he called a declaration of war. Under the country’s 2002 ceasefire, the government and rebels must seek permission before entering each other’s areas.

“Therefore for us the ceasefire is null and void,” said Puratchi, who goes by one name.

Puratchi said he was speaking for the Tamil Tigers, but his comments could not immediately be confirmed by other rebel leaders. Top officials in the rebel stronghold of Kilinochchi were not available, said a person who answered the telephone there. Meanwhile, the rebels shelled government positions in northern Jaffna Peninsula. But the military said on its website that it had repulsed the attack and killed four rebels.

The European team monitoring Sri Lanka’s ceasefire confirmed it had received a letter from the rebels threatening retaliation against government troops, but that it did not mention a pullout from the ceasefire.

“Maybe they are more aggressive verbally than the letter that we have received this morning,” monitors’ spokesman Thorfinnur Omarsson said.

The government said its assault in Trincomalee was aimed only at reaching a site where Tiger rebels were blocking a reservoir’s flow of water to villages in government-held territory, and thus was not an act of war.

“Definitely not, we are not abrogating from the ceasefire,” chief government spokesman Rambukwella said.

“Our military’s operation to open the irrigation gates is purely based on humanitarian grounds. It is not an act of war.”

Months of violence, including clashes between government forces and the rebels, have killed about 800 people and battered the fragile 2002 ceasefire, which was meant to end two decades of fighting that claimed the lives of about 65,000 people.

The rebels began fighting for an independent Tamil homeland in 1983, accusing the majority Sinhalese of discrimination.