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Tamil Tigers 'preparing for war'

<b>A breakaway Tamil Tiger commander in Sri Lanka has accused rebel leaders of readying for possible war after elections due in April. </b>

In an interview with the BBC, Colonel Karuna said he believed this was the reason why he was asked to send 1,000 troops from the east to the north.

But he said he was not overtly told of any war plan.

Peace efforts, which stalled last year, are on hold after a split between Sri Lanka's president and prime minister.

<b>'No betrayal' </b>

Colonel Karuna said his decision to split from the Tamil Tiger rebel leadership last week was in the interests of peace.

He said the demand for 1,000 of his fighters to be sent to the north raised suspicions in his mind that the Tiger leadership was preparing for a possible resumption of hostilities against the Sri Lankan government - depending on the outcome of the April general election.

"I can come to only two conclusions from their demand for sending so many soldiers to the north," the colonel said.

"Firstly they may have a plan for resuming the war. The second thing is that they just wanted to be guarded by our fighters."

Colonel Karuna's power base is in the east of the island and he is unhappy that the bulk of the rebel fighters comes from this area, yet all the top leadership comes from the north.

"I am responsible and answerable to the people here," he said, "so thinking on those lines I took up the issue of the grievances of my people with the leadership and I do not think they considered these issues a serious concern."

The renegade commander denied that he had betrayed the rebel movement.

<b>Amnesty offer rejected </b>

Colonel Karuna says his Meenagam camp, the biggest rebel base in the east of the island, comprises 2,000 female and 3,000 male fighters.

The BBC Frances Harrison, who visited the camp, says it is clear the breakaway commander is not just one lone individual - as alleged by the Tiger leadership when they expelled him on Saturday.

But our correspondent says it is too early to say if the colonel will achieve his aim of establishing an independent rebel administration in the east.

Earlier on Tuesday the colonel rejected an offer of an amnesty made by the Tamil Tiger leadership as "ridiculous".

The rebel leadership's offer was conditional on the colonel ceasing all his current activities immediately.

Meanwhile, Norwegian envoy Erik Solheim is in Sri Lanka to review the two-year truce between troops and rebels.

Correspondents say the talks will be dominated by the crisis among the rebels which erupted last week.

Parliamentary elections are due to be held next month, and talks to end the 20-year-old conflict - which has claimed 60,000 lives - will be a central part of the election campaign.

From: www.bbc.co.uk