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All is not well in Sri Lanka's east

New Delhi, May 30 (IANS) :

Even as Norwegian diplomats try to bridge the gulf between Colombo and Tamil Tiger guerrillas, a time bomb is slowly ticking away in Sri Lanka's troubled east.

In just about a month, at least 17 people have been killed mainly in the island's eastern wing in what is seen as an undeclared proxy war between the Sri Lankan military and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

The latest victim of this fratricidal violence was Kumaravel Thambaiah, a senior lecturer in the Eastern University of Batticaloa who was shot dead at his home May 24.

The killers escaped after firing shots at his head and chest. The LTTE believes that its former renegade commander Karuna, who evicted Thambaiah from Batticaloa during his March-April rebellion, masterminded the shooting.

In a way, the killings and counter-killings appear to be an extension of Karuna's stinging revolt against LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran, who finally seized control of Batticaloa after the former fled early last month.

One of the worst incidents took place April 24 when an armed group shot dead seven LTTE members, four them of invalids, in Batticaloa, a Tamil-majority area from which Karuna hails.

The LTTE suspected the hand of the Sri Lankan army, and said anti-LTTE Tamil groups "working alongside the (military), whether with the blessings of the army or otherwise," could have been responsible. The description could have fitted anyone.

The next day gunmen shot dead in a Colombo suburb a Tamil youth from Eravur, 10 km from Batticaloa town. The killers got away. Sri Lankan authorities say they have identified some 80 LTTE intelligence operatives in Colombo but are not sure of the killers in this case.

On May 1 a claymore mine blast killed an LTTE fighter near Kiran in Batticaloa. Kiran is the birthplace of Karuna, who is believed to be living under Sri Lankan protection despite denials from Colombo.

The next day the LTTE killed Ponnaiah Jeevanratnam, a Tamil youth, on a busy Batticaloa road. The victim was said to be close to Reginald, a senior associate of Karuna.

On the afternoon of May 6, the LTTE became the victim. Two of its members, Sivanathan Murali and Vathanan, were gunned down while riding a motorcycle from Batticaloa to Chenkaladi. The LTTE was bitter.

"We are afraid," the Tigers told the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), "that it may become impossible for us to be patient onlookers of the cavalier fashion in which the killings are being carried out."

A worried SLMM, made up of Nordic peace monitors, brought together LTTE and military officials for a meeting to thrash out their differences and to ensure that such killings are avoided.

But the violence has raged on. On May 19, gunmen believed to be from the LTTE shot dead a Sri Lankan intelligence operative at a post office in Batticaloa. The man was from the Special Investigation Unit. The LTTE denied any involvement.

The next day, an LTTE member was killed in an explosion some 40 km north of Batticaloa, close to a highway controlled by the army. The victim was identified as Markandu Punithalingam alias Rohithan alias Kohilan.

In a mysterious incident May 26, two Sri Lankan soldiers in the neighbouring district of Trincomalee disappeared after they left their military camp and went to a jungle to collect firewood.

The LTTE suspects that with the change of government in Colombo in April, the military is using Karuna to target the Tigers in the country's east, which is an ethnic cauldron because of its mix of Tamil, Sinhalese and Muslim population. Some of the killings would indeed indicate this is true and could be part of a larger game plan orchestrated by Colombo.

Both the LTTE and the Sri Lankan government must know who is behind at least some of the killings, but neither can afford to pull out of the peace process, at least now. But if the killings continue unabated, things might spin out of control.

New Kerala