Tigers renew war fears over attacks

The rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) chief peace negotiator Anton Balasingham told the Tamilnet.com website that the government was covertly supporting a "dirty war of attrition" against them.

"It is deeply disappointing to note that President (Chandrika) Kumaratunga's government... has allowed its armed forces to support and sustain a shadow war of the Tamil paramilitaries in grave violation of the truce agreement that could rekindle the civil war," Balasingham said.

The government denies supporting breakaway rebels.

His remarks came after Norway's Deputy Foreign Minister Vidar Helgesen left here last week without a breakthrough in reviving peace talks stalled for more than two years between the two sides, diplomatic sources said.

The LTTE had waged a separatist war starting in 1972 that has killed more than 60,000 people before a truce and peace talks were brokered by Norway in February 2002.

Negotiations have been on hold since April 2003 after the guerrillas suspended their participation, but the two sides have so far said they will abide by the ceasefire truce.

However, continued violence in rebel-held areas in the northeast, including the killings of two LTTE members two days ago by a breakaway rebel group, has sparked tension.

Balasingham said there were five Tamil paramilitary forces, including the main breakaway faction known as the Karuna group, and that they were paid and provided with logistical support by the Sri Lanka security forces.

Meanwhile, suspected Tamil Tiger rebels shot dead yesterday a Tamil television presenter and her political activist husband in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo, police and party officials said.

The attackers gunned down the couple at a communications centre they operated in Colombo's Bambalapitiya area and escaped, a police official said.

The anti-Tiger Democratic People's Liberation Front (DPLF) said the man, identified as S. Selvarajah, was one of their supporters and his wife, Relanki, was a part-time television presenter at a state-run network.