05-21-2004, 07:04 PM
One rebel killed in Sri Lanka's volatile east
COLOMBO, May 21 (Reuters) - At least one Tamil Tiger has been killed in Sri Lanka's volatile east, officials said on Friday, but residents in the region said an explosion heard from rebel-held areas could mean many more had died.
The violence is the latest in a spate of killings that have plaguing the eastern district of Batticaloa since the Tigers retook areas of the region that had been seized by a breakaway rebel commander who goes by the nom de guerre Karuna.
The ongoing violence overshadows peace efforts at a time when the island is expecting an imminent announcement from peace broker Norway of a date for fresh talks to end the war that killed 64,000 people.
Military spokesman Colonel Sumedha Perera said troops heard an explosion in the Batticaloa district late on Thursday and came to know of one death when the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) requested permission to bring a body into government-held territory, apparently for a funeral.
The pro-rebel Tamilnet Web site said one guerrilla was killed in the explosion, but monitors overseeing a two-year truce between the Tigers and government said the rebel had died of a gunshot wound.
"Our monitors found one dead LTTE cadre. But it was most likely not from an explosion but from a gunshot," said Agnes Bragadottir, spokeswoman for the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission.
Residents said there were reports of as many as seven dead. The military cannot investigate further since the incident took place in a rebel-controlled area.
The LTTE has implicated the army in the previous deaths -- a charge the military denies -- and called for an investigation, saying the ongoing killings threaten the island's peace bid to end 20 years of civil war.
At least one army intelligence soldier and one police officer attached to a counter-terrorism unit have been also killed in the past few weeks, in what could be tit-for-tat attacks.
Norwegian envoy Erik Solheim is due in Sri Lanka next week for talks with both sides that are expected to finalise a date to resume negotiations the Tigers suspended in April last year.
http://www.reuters.com/
COLOMBO, May 21 (Reuters) - At least one Tamil Tiger has been killed in Sri Lanka's volatile east, officials said on Friday, but residents in the region said an explosion heard from rebel-held areas could mean many more had died.
The violence is the latest in a spate of killings that have plaguing the eastern district of Batticaloa since the Tigers retook areas of the region that had been seized by a breakaway rebel commander who goes by the nom de guerre Karuna.
The ongoing violence overshadows peace efforts at a time when the island is expecting an imminent announcement from peace broker Norway of a date for fresh talks to end the war that killed 64,000 people.
Military spokesman Colonel Sumedha Perera said troops heard an explosion in the Batticaloa district late on Thursday and came to know of one death when the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) requested permission to bring a body into government-held territory, apparently for a funeral.
The pro-rebel Tamilnet Web site said one guerrilla was killed in the explosion, but monitors overseeing a two-year truce between the Tigers and government said the rebel had died of a gunshot wound.
"Our monitors found one dead LTTE cadre. But it was most likely not from an explosion but from a gunshot," said Agnes Bragadottir, spokeswoman for the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission.
Residents said there were reports of as many as seven dead. The military cannot investigate further since the incident took place in a rebel-controlled area.
The LTTE has implicated the army in the previous deaths -- a charge the military denies -- and called for an investigation, saying the ongoing killings threaten the island's peace bid to end 20 years of civil war.
At least one army intelligence soldier and one police officer attached to a counter-terrorism unit have been also killed in the past few weeks, in what could be tit-for-tat attacks.
Norwegian envoy Erik Solheim is due in Sri Lanka next week for talks with both sides that are expected to finalise a date to resume negotiations the Tigers suspended in April last year.
http://www.reuters.com/
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