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Sri Lankan Government Says Renegade Rebel Won't Harm Cease-Fire

June 22 (Bloomberg) -- Sri Lanka's government said the leader of a breakaway Tamil rebel group won't threaten the cease- fire agreement that halted the island's two-decade civil war.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, which has fought for an independent homeland in the south Asian island, yesterday accused the government of hiding Colonel Karuna, the leader of a break- away faction in the east, the TamilNet website reported.

``We have no information of where Karuna is and I'm not aware that the army is keeping him,'' said Defense Secretary Cyril Herath in a telephone interview, ``I don't think that Karuna is a threat to the cease-fire but the LTTE may see this differently depending on how they look at it.''

Sri Lanka has been unable to restart peace talks, after Norway, the peace broker, failed to end differences between the government and Tamil Tiger rebels. The whereabouts of Karuna, whose real name is Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan, has become a sticking point for the main rebel group, which says the government isn't serious about restarting peace talks.

This is ``likely to raise serious doubts on the bona fides of the government of Sri Lanka and has introduced a potentially explosive component to prospects for peace,'' the TamilNet website said yesterday.

The main rebel group regained control of an area held by the breakaway faction after clashes in April. The Liberation Tigers are still observing a cease-fire agreement reached with the government in February 2002.

President Chandrika Kumaratunga who promised to restart peace talks after her United People's Freedom Alliance party won elections in April has repeatedly said she is committed to the peace process. Negotiations for a permanent peace settlement collapsed in 1985, 1990, 1995 and in April last year.

Pact With India

Herath said Sri Lanka will sign a defense cooperation agreement with India in the ``next two to three months'' aimed at improving ties between the neighboring countries.

``We're in the process of finalizing finer points of the agreement and we should be signing it soon,'' said Herath.

The agreement will mean both South Asian nations will conduct more military training exercises and Indian military ships will visit Trincomalee, the eastern port in Sri Lanka that borders rebel-held territory.

At least 60,000 people have died in one of Asia's longest civil wars as the rebels seek independence in the north-east of the island, where most of the Tamils live.

The Tamils, who make up fewer than a fifth of the island's population of 19.7 million, say they are discriminated against by the majority Sinhalese, who are mostly Buddhist. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam is designated as a terrorist group by the U.S., U.K. and India.