03-11-2004, 02:54 PM
Sri Lankan Breakaway Rebels Prepare for Fight With Tamil Tigers
March 11 (Bloomberg) -- Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger chief Velupillai Prabhakaran has ordered his troops to prepare for battle with a rebel splinter group, a spokesman for the breakaway group's leader said.
``We are picking up that Prabhakaran has ordered some troops to come to our borders and we're ready for this,'' Varathan, a spokesman for the splinter group leader Colonel Karuna, said in a telephone interview from Batticaloa, in the east of the island.
Prabhakaran last weekend fired Karuna, who has since rejected the leader's offer for amnesty in return for resigning. Karuna, whose real name is Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan, objects to top rebel leaders being appointed from northern Sri Lanka even as most fighters are from the east.
The split in the rebel group has further disrupted Sri Lanka's peace process aimed at ending a 20-year civil war. A dispute between the country's president and prime minister on concessions given to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has already raised concerns about a cease-fire agreement in place since February 2002.
Both rebel factions said they will maintain the cease-fire agreement with the government. Karuna's faction has about 6,000 members, a third of the whole rebel fighting force.
The Sri Lankan army, which monitors government-controlled areas in the east, hasn't detected any movement of troops from the north although factional fighting between Tamil Tiger troops hasn't been ruled out.
No Movement
``We don't see any movement from the north but Prabhakaran's troops can move down from Trincomalee without us knowing about it,'' said Sumedha Perera, a spokesman for the Sri Lankan army, in a telephone interview in Colombo. ``We don't expect violations of the cease-fire agreement, but there may be an outbreak of fighting between the two Tamil Tiger sides.''
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam have fought since 1983 for an independent Tamil homeland in the north and east of Sri Lanka. More than 60,000 people have died in the conflict.
Tamils, who are mostly Hindu and comprise less than 20 percent of the population, say they are discriminated against by the Buddhist Sinhalese, about 70 percent of the population. The Tigers are labeled a terrorist group by the U.S., U.K. and India.
Thanx: Bloomberg News
March 11 (Bloomberg) -- Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger chief Velupillai Prabhakaran has ordered his troops to prepare for battle with a rebel splinter group, a spokesman for the breakaway group's leader said.
``We are picking up that Prabhakaran has ordered some troops to come to our borders and we're ready for this,'' Varathan, a spokesman for the splinter group leader Colonel Karuna, said in a telephone interview from Batticaloa, in the east of the island.
Prabhakaran last weekend fired Karuna, who has since rejected the leader's offer for amnesty in return for resigning. Karuna, whose real name is Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan, objects to top rebel leaders being appointed from northern Sri Lanka even as most fighters are from the east.
The split in the rebel group has further disrupted Sri Lanka's peace process aimed at ending a 20-year civil war. A dispute between the country's president and prime minister on concessions given to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has already raised concerns about a cease-fire agreement in place since February 2002.
Both rebel factions said they will maintain the cease-fire agreement with the government. Karuna's faction has about 6,000 members, a third of the whole rebel fighting force.
The Sri Lankan army, which monitors government-controlled areas in the east, hasn't detected any movement of troops from the north although factional fighting between Tamil Tiger troops hasn't been ruled out.
No Movement
``We don't see any movement from the north but Prabhakaran's troops can move down from Trincomalee without us knowing about it,'' said Sumedha Perera, a spokesman for the Sri Lankan army, in a telephone interview in Colombo. ``We don't expect violations of the cease-fire agreement, but there may be an outbreak of fighting between the two Tamil Tiger sides.''
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam have fought since 1983 for an independent Tamil homeland in the north and east of Sri Lanka. More than 60,000 people have died in the conflict.
Tamils, who are mostly Hindu and comprise less than 20 percent of the population, say they are discriminated against by the Buddhist Sinhalese, about 70 percent of the population. The Tigers are labeled a terrorist group by the U.S., U.K. and India.
Thanx: Bloomberg News
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