34 killed in Sri Lanka violence

At least 34 people across northern Sri Lanka have been killed in the latest spate of violence across the country.

The latest attacks come as a Japanese envoy met officials in a bid to try to stop the raging civil war.

Soldiers in the rebel-held northern Mannar district captured nine Tamil Tiger bunkers, killing nine insurgents, a military spokesman said. Two soldiers also died in the fighting, he said.

The rebel-affiliated website TamilNet reported that Tamil Tiger fighters in Mannar held off a major military offensive – backed by artillery and air strikes - in a fierce battle that killed at least 30 soldiers and three rebels.

The two sides often give vastly different accounts of the fighting, exaggerating enemy casualties while underreporting their own. Independent confirmation is unavailable since the battle zone is a restricted area.

Earlier, a roadside bomb hit a van just south of the front lines separating government forces from the Tigers’ de facto state in the north, the spokesman said.

The passengers, civilian workers with a military escort, were returning from an army base after collecting explosives for use in civilian metal mining, he said.

The civilian driver and two soldiers were killed, the military said.

The Tigers have been fighting since 1983 for an independent state for Sri Lanka’s ethnic Tamil minority. The fighting has killed more than 70,000 people.

Violence has surged since January 3, when the government announced its withdrawal from a 2002 ceasefire that had largely broken down amid two years of renewed fighting.

The withdrawal brought to an end a Nordic monitoring mission that was one of the few independent sources of information on the fighting. The monitors were due to leave the country tomorrow.

In an attempt to revive the peace process, Japanese mediator Yasushi Akashi met Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama and President Mahinda Rajapaksa in Sri Lanka yesterday.

“Mr Akashi asked the president for the reasons for the abrogation of the ceasefire agreement, and the president explained that from the beginning it did not deliver the intended results,” Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona said.

Mr Rajapaksa told Mr Akashi that the rebels used the ceasefire only to build up their military strength.

Mr Akashi also promised continued economic assistance to Sri Lanka and support to the government’s efforts to evolve a power-sharing deal with minority Tamils.