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[Mathan]

Sri Lanka East on Edge After Rebel Factions Clash

Sat Apr 10, 2004 01:25 PM ET

By Lindsay Beck

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's east remained volatile on Saturday with unconfirmed reports of fresh clashes between rival Tamil Tiger factions, a day after the worst fighting since a two-year truce halted the island's civil war.

Officials said the death toll in Friday's violence could be triple initial reports, and thousands of frightened civilians were holed up in schools after fleeing the clashes the government said were a violation of the February 2002 cease-fire.

"Fighting began again a short while ago about 16 km north of Valaichchenai," said Agnes Bragadottir, spokeswoman for the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, referring to a town in the eastern district of Batticaloa, about 220 km east of Colombo.

But an army official in Valaichchenai said he could not confirm the report.

"We can't give a strong no, but we don't hear any firing or see anything unusual," he said.

Military spokesman Colonel Sumedha Perera said the area had been calm overnight but that thousands of civilians had crossed into government-controlled areas, including about 350 children under five.

Reports on Friday said eight fighters and an ambulance driver had died in the clashes, but a spokesman for breakaway eastern commander Karuna said there were 10 dead on their side and officials said the main Tiger group could have lost 15-20.

Karuna -- the nom de guerre for eastern rebel commander V. Muralitharan -- broke from the Tigers in early March with about 6,000 of their 15,000 troops.

"That party launched the attack," Karuna's spokesman, Varathan, told Reuters, referring to the northern-based Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

"We have recovered 10 dead bodies, but we have no idea of the casualties on their side. We are re-organizing our teams."

Military sources said Karuna's group had retreated south of a major east-west road controlled by the government leaving the northern troops on the other side -- a worry for the army, which does not want to get caught up in the conflict.

The main LTTE group does not take its wounded to hospitals in government areas, so officials said there was no firm estimate as to the number of casualties but from the types of heavy weapons fire exchanged they could be high.

"TRUCE VIOLATION"

A Defense Ministry statement said only that there had been "several casualties."

It added that, although the fighting had not drawn in government forces, it considered the clashes to be a violation of the Norwegian-brokered truce that has given the island its best chance to end the 20-year separatist war.

"It is intended to inform the Norwegian facilitators to convey to the LTTE that this is a violation of the cease-fire agreement," the statement said.

The president was scheduled to meet the Norwegian ambassador late on Saturday to discuss the situation that complicates her newly elected government's efforts to revive peace talks, on hold now since April 2003.

President Chandrika Kumaratunga told Secretary of State Colin Powell she would move to restart talks after next week's local New Year holidays and would not let the split in the Tigers stand in the way, but it is difficult to see how that would work in practice.

The Tigers consider themselves the sole representatives of the Tamil people and when Karuna broke away it was a major blow to their internal discipline.

The Tigers, who have been fighting for a separate Tamil state, are known to brook no dissent and have vowed to "get rid of Karuna from our soil."

Kumaratunga, an arch-foe of the Tigers whom they tried to kill in a 1999 suicide bomb attack, was expected to retain the defense portfolio when the island's new cabinet is sworn in later on Saturday.