As Sri Lanka’s cricketers took to the pitch at Lord’s this week with the Sinhala Lion emblazoned on their uniforms, any notion that sport bridges the island’s ethnic divide is being unwittingly challenged, ironically, by a British effort at recognizing diversity: public announcements at the famous grounds are being made in English – and Sinhala.

British press reports describe the move as a step towards “English cricket’s attempts to reach beyond its white middle-class core.”

“The move to address visiting supporters in their own language follows discussions with the Bangladeshi community last summer, which revealed that non-white fans largely felt excluded from England’s Test grounds,” The Guardian newspaper reported Thursday.

And before the match, the paper reported, “with concerns lingering about pitch invasions this summer the captains Andrew Flintoff and Mahela Jayawardene will address the crowd in their native tongues before play starts.”

“The hope,” the paper said “is that the gesture will break down barriers.”

But there was an unexpected snag.

Plans for Jayawardene to address the Lord’s crowd in Sinhalese had to be scrapped Thursday when the Sri Lanka captain was unable to translate the English message into his own tongue, The Guardian reported.

“After two failed efforts he opted to record a message in English instead. A translation should be ready for him to read Friday.”

Sri Lanka’s military is now killing Tamil civilians with abandon. Emboldened by the manifest reluctance of international ceasefire monitors, leading members of the international community and southern liberals to condemn their actions, Sri Lanka’s armed forces are abducting and killing people with impunity. In the past two weeks alone, dozens of civilians have been murdered by army and navy personnel who, amongst numerous other attacks, abducted youth from a temple, rocketed rickshaws carrying revellers to a birthday party and, this weekend, rampaged through residential parts of an islet off Jaffna. Meanwhile, people suspected of supporting the Liberation Tigers are being abducted and murdered or shot out of hand in the street. The matter of extra-judicial killings was raised with reporters by frustrated junior ceasefire monitors. “They [military] don’t even try to make things up,” one said in disgust.

But the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) is officially silent on the wave of bloodletting unleashed by the military amongst the Tamils of the Northeast. Indeed, the SLMM’s new head, Ulf Henricsson, has focussed his attention primarily on censuring the LTTE. This newspaper warned recently that the SLMM had set a dangerous precedent by withdrawing, under Colombo’s hostile pressure, its accusation that that “government security forces have, in the north and the east, been involved in extrajudicial killings of civilians.” Regrettably, we were proven right within days. Killings of civilians by the armed forces have escalated sharply, particularly in Jaffna, but also in every other district of the Northeast.

We also queried earlier, that if the international monitors are prepared to retract their statements or abandon their ‘convictions’ simply because the Sri Lankan state expresses its displeasure, then what purpose is served by the SLMM? To monitor the LTTE alone? The answer, it seems, is yes. Despite the widely reported, unabashed violence unleashed by the armed forces against Tamil civilians, the SLMM seems more preoccupied with Colombo’s accusations against the Tigers.

Matters have not been helped by the undisguised contempt Mr. Henricsson demonstrated for the LTTE in his wide-ranging comments to the press in the recent past. Mr. Henricsson’s job is to monitor breaches of the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA), not pontificate on the character of the LTTE and its leadership. Nor is it his brief to theorize on sovereignty or to interpret international law. Those are matters, surely, for the negotiators of both sides, if and when the so-called ‘core issues’ are taken up for discussion. It is Mr. Henricsson’s brief, however, to investigate and condemn the violence unleashed against our people by the armed forces, amongst other breaches of the CFA. His failure, indeed refusal, to do so has arguably contributed to accelerating the cycle of violence.

The SLMM, however, is following the conduct of leading international actors involved in Sri Lanka’s ‘peace process’. Amid very real fears that Sri Lanka is slipping back towards a major conflict, the international community, resolutely refusing to look at the localized dynamics of the ‘shadow war’ (now, according to the SLMM a ‘low-intensity war’) are focused primarily on pressuring one side, the LTTE. The Tamils have repeatedly argued that the violence is a cycle, whose continuation stems from the actions of both sides. But rather than condemn and pressure the Sinhala nationalist government of President Mahinda Rajapakse, the international community is instead praising Colombo and condemning the LTTE.

The wider framework of peace and political accommodation are irrelevant to the Tamils now. Physical security is the only concern. Thus it is the international community’s continuing reluctance to rein in the Sinhala leadership that is going to precipitate a major confrontation. Some Tamils suspect the international community is allowing Colombo a space to terrorise the rebellious minority into pressuring the Tigers to be more accommodative. Such logic ignores the history of the conflict. Indeed, Tamil media report a sudden flood of recruits to the Tigers, rather than a flurry of petitions.

In the meantime, the impassive, implacable attitude of the international community is eroding Tamil faith in international commitment to their wellbeing. The feeling that the callousness demonstrated during the ‘war for peace’ of the late nineties still holds, has gained widespread credence. This is also contributing to belligerence amidst the terror. The CFA has been described as the bedrock of the Norwegian peace process. This is not only because it promoted a sense of security between the protagonists and Sri Lanka’s peoples, but because it provided a secure space in which communal harmony and amity could grow. Both are fast disintegrating.

Jaffna came to a standstill on Thursday May 4 to protest an attack two days earlier by Army-backed paramilitaries on the offices of the Tamil-language newspaper Uthayan in Jaffna, that left two people dead and another two seriously injured.

Though the Sri Lankan government blamed the Liberation Tiers for the attack, the paper protested that the LTTE had nothing to do with it and blamed the paramilitary Eelam Peoples’ Democratic Party (EPDP), an ally of the governing party.

Information Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa publicly blamed the LTTE for the attack, saying “the LTTE wants to tarnish Sri Lanka’s image and wants to show the outside world that the government is not for media freedom,” he told the press.

But the editor of the Uthayan, N. Vithyatharan told the media: “I have no doubt that this is the work of armed groups working with the government security forces.”

The EPDP is the largest of the Army-backed paramilitary group in Jaffna.

The Sri Lanka Defense Ministry later said that they had arrested six suspects, including two traders and four students from the eastern province temporarily residing in Jaffna. All six were granted bail because eyewitnesses were unable to pick them out in an identification parade.

But civil society members registered complaints with the Jaffna Human Rights Commission (JHRC) offices that four were innocent students.

They had been living in a privately rented apartment in Kannathiddy junction in Jaffna and were preparing for their GCE(A/L) examinations, attending tuition classes at the popular New Science School, a privately run educational institution in Jaffna.

A gang of five men armed with automatic rifles entered the Uthayan office on the evening of May 2 and began firing. Marketing manager Bastian George Sagayathas, 36, also known as Suresh, was the first killed.

The gunmen then moved to the circulation section and, while firing, ordered workers to lie down and not to raise their heads. S. Uthayakumar, 48, was injured during the shooting.

Circulation supervisor S. Ranjith, 25, was killed when he raised his head to see what was happening to Uthayakumar. He was held down and shot dead.

Another staff member was forced at gunpoint to lead the gang to the editorial area to find the sub-editor, but the rest of the staff had fled. After raking the computers with gunfire, the attackers fled on motorbikes. The two injured – Uthayakumar and another employee N. Thayakaran, 24 – were rushed to Jaffna Hospital with wounds.

The killers had demanded to see a number of journalists who were not on the premises. "Gunmen went inside looking for some senior reporters," an Uthayan journalist said. "They were not there, but the gunmen opened fire," he added.

"The gunmen were shooting at will, everybody they found inside the office were shot. Finally, they smashed all the computers in the office," an employee who managed to escape from the attackers told TamilNet.

Eyewitnesses identified one of the attackers, dressed in black civil clothes, as an EPDP paramilitary cadre.

“The reason for the attack may have been a cartoon that the newspaper published on Monday [May 1] of the leader of a rival group showing him prostrating himself before the president,” Vithyatharan told colleagues.

The cartoon was of the leader of the EPDP, Douglas Devananda, who is minister for social services and social welfare in President Rajapakse’s government.

President Rajapakse condemned the attack, ordered an investigation and reportedly rang V. Saravanabavan, the owner of the Sudaroli newspaper group that publishes Uthayan.

According to Vithyatharan, Rajapakse, in his telephone conversation with Saravanabavan, denied any government involvement in the attack. Vithyatharan said: “His [Rajapakse’s] thinking was that the Tigers had done it ahead of his speech [on world press freedom day] to embarrass him. But we clearly told him that the government should bear the responsibility.”

The Batticaloa district has been hit by a sex abuse scandal after reports that local women working for local and international Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) have been appearing in pornographic films sold locally.

Batticaloa and Trincomalee Bishop Kingsley Swamipillai told The Sunday Times he believed such abuse of women had been going on for some time and he welcomed the probe.

Batticaloa’s Senior Police Superintendent Maxi Proctor said no formal complaints of such sexual abuse had been made yet but he had read about it in leaflets.

Leaflets warning women to quit working for NGOs have been circulated across the eastern coast. The leaflets, distributed by an organisation calling itself the Tamil Eelam Women’s Uprising Army, warned all women working in NGOs to quit their jobs. The warning stated “your future life may be endangered” if this directive is not obeyed.

The Sunday Times reports the matter has not been officially reported to the police because the victims are afraid to come forward apparently due to the stigma attached to it and possible reprisals.

The crisis has reached such serious proportions that Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Batticaloa district MPs have requested District Secretary S. Puniyamoorthy to summon an urgent meeting with heads of both local and international NGOs in the district to probe the charges and take remedial action.

Akkaraipattu Inspector A. Gaffar told the Daily Mirror one DVD contains explicit video clips of a foreigner sexually abusing a 19-20 year old Tamil girl. The DVD apparently contains shots taken in the Elle area in Badulla. The DVDs are available for Rs. 50 in open markets across the Eastern province, reported the paper.

Later press reports said a young girl from Amparai had killed herself after appearing in a DVD. The 23-year-old from Karaitivu, who had been employed on a part time basis by an NGO in the area, said unknown men in a white van had driven her home from the NGO office one day knocked her out and released her three days later.

The Daily Mirror reported that the girl left a note saying she believed she had been raped by the men while she was held captive and that is why she committed suicide. However, the paper said she had appeared in some of the pornographic DVDs circulating in the area, which portrayed local girls with foreigners and that was why she had killed herself.

The leaflet also quotes a statement made by the Batticaloa TNA MP Pakkiaselvam Ariyanenthiran which states that “183 Tamil speaking girls in Batticaloa and 163 in Ampara district have undergone abortions,” and that these women were “employees of NGOs.”

These details were repeated made at a recent seminar on “Tamil women and culture” in Pawattan Thirukkovil.

The leaflet claims that “women working in NGOs are sexually abused” and that “in some cases where the abortions were not successful, they are on the verge of giving birth”. It also claims that parents who allow their daughters to work for NGOs should be held responsible for these supposed atrocities.

Meanwhile, the LTTE’s Batticaloa political wing leader Daya Mohan summoned a meeting of NGO representatives on Friday and told them the Tigers had evidence of sexual abuse of women. He warned there would be serious consequences if such abuse was not stopped.

Batticaloa district TNA Parliamentarian K.Thangeswari said they also had taken up the matter with some local and foreign NGOs and told them they need to respect local customs and traditions if they wished to work in the area.

The sexual abuse had allegedly taken place mainly in some of the worst tsunami-affected areas such as Nawaladi and Thiruchenthur in the Kalladi area. The women had been subjected to abuse after they were taken to distant places on the pretext of being taken for training, according to UN project officials in Batticaloa district.

The training programmes which lasted more than a week in some cases were held in hotels and women employees were allegedly coerced into posing for pornographic videos in exchange for cash handouts. The names of four leading international NGOs operating in these areas have been linked to these allegations, reports the Sunday Times.

More than 10,000 women are employed in nearly 300 NGOs and international NGOs in these districts. Many of them were set up after the tsunami in December, 2004.

NGO sources told the Daily Mirror two mosques in Kalmunai and Saindamaradu had publicly requested women to leave the NGOs. However, the Police did not corroborate this statement.

Consortium of Humanitarian Agencies (CHA) Executive Director Jeevan Thiagarajah noted that a joint plea has been forwarded to Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, IGP Chandra Fernando and the DIG East asking for protection for female NGO workers in the region.

The racket came to light when a lady doctor who allegedly performed some 75 abortions on the affected women made a confession. As a preliminary move to stopping the abuse, women workers have been told not to work in the NGOs or INGOs after 5 p.m. and to attend seminars only in the main offices instead of going to distant places.

Europeans have a rather quaint tradition of telling everyone when they intend to go to war.

That’s why so many of them are now asking the burning question: “Can the ceasefire in Sri Lanka survive the latest violence between the government and the Tamil Tiger rebels?”

But to ask the question is to miss the point. The two sides in Sri Lanka are already having a war - they just haven’t told anybody yet. And they’ve decided, so far, not to have the war everyone was expecting.

The Norwegian mediators, the EU, the Japanese and even an Indian holy man have all been busy trying to persuade both sides not to return to an all-out conflict.

But apart from the hardliners, neither the government nor the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), as the rebels are known, seem to want a big war because neither side is really prepared for it yet.

The reasons are cash and Karuna.

Colonel Karuna was one of the Tamil Tigers’ heroes of the last war, which ended with the much talked-about ceasefire agreement signed four years ago.

But in March 2004 he and his fighters, based around the eastern Batticaloa districts of the country, split from the group and began fighting against their former comrades.

Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan, Col Karuna’s real name, is both partly the cause of the present crisis and why there probably won’t be a full-scale war anytime soon.

He split from the Tigers because he said the eastern cadres were not being properly represented in the group’s hierarchy.

Some analysts in Colombo say it was more to do with an alleged financial investigation by the Tigers into his family’s business interests in the region.

Whatever the truth is, Col Karuna has levelled the playing field. He has opened up an eastern flank and has provoked the Tigers by attacking and destabilising them with the kind of guerrilla tactics the LTTE have used so successfully against the government over the years.

For the first time if a proper war happened both sides would now be facing a conventional force on the battlefield and a guerrilla force spreading terror in the areas populated by their civilians.

So the Tigers want him stopped.

The government committed itself to disarming any paramilitaries operating in areas under their control. But they’ve avoided taking action by saying Karuna is moving in Tiger territory beyond their influence.

The fact is, though, that whilst the more moderate wings of the government say he is an out-of-control menace who is doing more harm than good, the military leadership couldn’t be happier.

They have absolutely no intention of trying to disarm Karuna even if they could, which the UN said recently was doubtful.

They think he is far too useful. In fact more than just turning a blind eye to his actions they are encouraging his group to develop political and social wings to better integrate themselves into their communities in the way the Tigers have done so successfully in the north.

And some analysts say that, while the military isn’t arming Karuna, they are supporting him with finances, logistics and medical assistance for his injured fighters.

The worry in all of this is that the government in Colombo might overplay its hand.

The hardliners in the leadership believe a short sharp war could bulldoze the Tigers into submission and force a negotiated settlement.

It’s the kind of talk that has diplomats reaching for some very undiplomatic language. The response of one I spoke to translated as “crap”.

President Mahinda Rajapakse has so far managed to fend off the more extreme suggestions from the right-wingers within his government.

And he allowed limited air strikes to take away their puff after the latest Tiger atrocity in the capital.

But his attempts to stop a wider war are being undermined by the LTTE, something the international community is recognising. Last Thursday’s attack by the Tigers on the navy left the Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission fuming, particularly as it took place whilst their people were on the government boats.

And there is increasingly a weariness creeping across the face of diplomats trying to resolve this conflict. Nobody likes being treated as a fool, and when the Tigers tell mediators they have no idea who sent a suicide bomber to blow up the army chief, finger nails start pushing into palms.

But even with all the provocation President Rajapakse knows war is not an option because the country simply cannot afford one. The economy is too shaky, damaged by years of war, the tsunami and then by the upsurge in violence.

He can’t afford to buy now everything the army would need. A full war would also see bombs going off all over the capital. As a colleague in Colombo pointed out, all it would take is a bomb in a hotel and one at the port to decimate two of the country’s biggest foreign exchange earners. Those investors lured back to Sri Lanka last time at the prospect of peace might pack their bags for good.

The Tigers would also see their foreign income strangled. Canada and the UK, where the group is banned but most of the Tamil diaspora lives, would probably make serious efforts to stop the willing and unwilling donations given to the Tiger fundraisers. That’s now much easier to do post 9/11 and the changes to the international banking regulations.

Another attack by the Tigers on someone as strategically important as the army chief might push the country beyond the point of no return.

In the meantime, the government will sort out security in the capital after places like its army headquarters turned out to have worse security than a Western shopping mall.

The Tigers will use their time to try and finish off Karuna, with the army doing its best to see that that fight drags on draining resources and energy from both groups.

Attacks like the one on the navy and claymore mine blasts against the army will rumble on. And so will the revenge killings against civilian Tiger sympathisers by the nasty bands of death squads, a few of whom appear to be linked to rogue bits of the security forces.

In short, people will carry on dying on a daily basis but in small enough numbers to maintain the façade that the ceasefire agreement is holding.

And Westerners will keep asking if war is just around the corner.

Paul Danahar is BBC South Asia bureau editor

It is a simple truth that any military CFA is based on a balance of power and in order to maintain the CFA that military balance of power must remain. Sea Tigers existed prior to CFA and it contributed to the balance of power that resulted in the CFA. Sea Tigers used the seas adjacent to our areas of control.

This fact was confirmed by the SLMM in its Press Release on 25 April 2003 where it said:

“When the Ceasefire Agreement was signed on the 22nd of Feb 02, the LTTE fighting formations, including the Sea Tigers, existed. Consequently, the LTTE Sea Tigers exists as a De Facto Naval Unit...Balance of power is one of the basic elements for the present Ceasefire. Hence, to maintain their Forces‚ capabilities both Parties must have the right to carry out training and exercise in designated areas.”

LTTE has since been warning the SLMM, on several occasions, verbally and in writing, that it will move Sea Tiger Naval vessels, armed or otherwise, in the seas adjacent to the land areas under LTTE control. We have repeatedly informed the SLMM that we will retaliate if SLN vessels intercept us. For this reason we have warned and requested the SLMM Naval Monitors to refrain from boarding SLN vessels. The three letters sent to SLMM are included below.

It was in this background, we were exercising in the seas adjacent to our land areas on 11 May 2006, when SLN vessels attempted to interfere with our movements and attacked us. As we have warned we retaliated.

In this unprovoked attack on the Sea Tiger vessels by SLN, four of our fighters lost their lives and two of our fighters are injured.

SLMM Press Release on 11 May 2006 relating to this incident said, “The sea surrounding Sri Lanka is a Government Controlled Area. This has been ruled so by the Head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission in line with international law. Non-state actors cannot rule open sea waters or airspace. The LTTE has therefore no rights at sea.”

We like to point out to you that you are contradicting your own earlier statement that Sea Tigers are part of the balance of power and therefore must have the right to carry out training and exercises.

In spite of this and in spite of our warning, the SLMM has put its naval monitors at risk to provide protection to SLN vessels. At the same time, the SLMM has not provided protection to our fighters and our naval vessels. Even worse, the SLMM has ruled this incident a CFA violation against us.

Following this incident, Sri Lankan Air Force has bombed Vanni region. Sri Lankan armed forces have also carried out blind shelling and artillery attacks on heavily populated areas in the Sampur region of Trincomalee. These attacks are serious CFA violations. Yet, the SLMM has not condemned these attacks for the serious CFA violations that they are.

We are shocked and disappointed by the partiality demonstrated by the SLMM.

Attached are the three letters sent to SLMM requesting it to refrain from boarding SLN vessels:

18th April:

In recent times Sri Lankan Naval vessels boats have carried out several attacks on areas in our control along the Northeast coast. There were two such very serious attacks along the Trincomalee coastal areas. Cannons fired from Sri Lankan naval vessels have fell on civilian homes and work places along the Northeast coast. We have sent several complaints to you about these attacks.

Sri Lankan naval vessels have come very near the shores of our sea area and have fired at our Sea tiger Naval bases. In this context, situation may arise when we will be forced to return fire. Also, given the failure to arrange internal transport of our members, we may also be forced to use our own naval vessels for the transport of our members. If Sri Lankan naval vessels attempt to attack us we will be forced to take defensive action.

We are totally committed to the protection and safety of all SLMM members working in the Northeast. Therefore, given the above scenario, we request you to avoid boarding Sri Lankan naval vessels immediately on receiving this letter. Please inform all your Naval Monitors as soon as you have received this letter to stop boarding Sri Lankan naval vessels. We regret to state that if any SLMM members are hurt while in Sri Lankan naval vessels we cannot be held responsible for it.

10 May:

We refer to your letter dated 18 April 2006, in response to our earlier letter where we requested SLMM monitors to refrain from boarding Sri Lankan Naval vessels for the sake of the safety and security of the SLMM monitors.

We thank you for this reply dated 18 April.

We believe it is our responsibility to inform you of the threat to your safety and security, which we have done. It is of course your decision to act on that advice and we respect that.

We, however, wish to reiterate that we cannot be held responsible for any harm to SLMM monitors while on board a Sri Lankan Naval vessel.

11 May:

We have on several occasions verbally informed you to refrain from boarding Sri Lankan Naval vessels. We have also given this request in writing to you twice so far. This is the third request from us to you to refrain from boarding Sri Lankan Naval vessels.

Sri Lankan Navy is entering the sea adjoining the land in our control and disrupting the fishing activities of the people. It is also disturbing the LTTE exercises in doing so. If Sri Lankan Navy disrupts our activities we will definitely retaliate.

SLMM monitors are used by the Sri Lankan Navy as human shields in order to continue with these disruptions.

We urge you for the last time not to be on board Sri Lankan Naval vessels until further notice from us. If you chose to ignore our warning and request, we are not responsible for the consequences.

Please take this as the last warning to you to not board Sri Lankan Naval vessels.

Even Norway’s veteran peacemaker, Erik Solheim, was in an uncharacteristically pessimistic mood during his visit to Colombo last week. The situation, he said, was grave. People are dying everyday. If the cycle of violence continues, it could trigger a full-blown war. This Tuesday, the Co-Chairs of Sri Lanka’s donors - the United States, the European Union, Japan and Norway - met again to discuss Sri Lanka, almost exactly three years since they last met and pledged $4.5bn in exchange for ‘progress towards peace.’ We are unlikely to see those halcyon days again.

The central issue now is the European Union’s decision to proscribe the LTTE. The move will have far reaching consequences for the peace process and for Sri Lanka’s future. The most obvious impact has been stated repeatedly ad nauseum over the past few months: an EU ban on the LTTE will embolden the Sinhala nationalists in the south and encourage Colombo to confidently take a militarist approach to the ethnic question. But this appeal, repeated this week by thousands of Tamils who demonstrated in several European cities, has fallen on deaf ears. The EU rationale instead is that coercive steps by the international community are needed to deter the LTTE from returning to a new war and that, above all else, is the priority. There is simply no consideration of Colombo’s role in the steady escalation towards war.

But this is not the only reason why the EU’s action coming at this particular juncture can be expected to radically transform the long-term strategies of both protagonists. The EU move comes as thousands of Tamils are fleeing government-controlled areas and seeking refuge in LTTE-controlled ones or in neighbouring India. There have been unabashed demonstrations in the past few months, not just days, of the racist cruelty that underlines Sri Lanka’s US-trained military’s approach to the Tamils. Mr. Solheim pointed out last week that ‘people all over the north and east are living with fear.’ The question, therefore, is: how are they to be provided with security? Coming precisely when the Tamils are again facing state-sponsored violence - by the armed forces, paramilitaries and racist mobs, the EU’s move has thoroughly discredited internationally-backed ‘peace and reconciliation’ efforts as nothing but an strategy to contain and crush the LTTE. This in itself is not a surprise - many Tamils have long viewed international involvement in making peace in Sri Lanka with skepticism and some have openly denounced it as a trap. As an emboldened Sri Lanka continues its present course of action, these voices will grown in number and vehemence.

Despite Tamil reservations about international bias towards the Sri Lankan state the LTTE has explored the peace process for ways to advance the Tamil liberation struggle without recourse to war. Contrary to the central charge against it today, it has stuck with the peace process. This is despite a failure to get greater recognition – by way of direct engagement – from the international community and despite the rapid disintegration of almost all agreements reached through the talks. Even when the conditionality imposed by donors in Tokyo three years ago frayed and was eventually dumped, particularly after the tsunami, the LTTE has remained engaged. It has also done so despite vitriolic and unabashedly one-sided condemnation by key states underwriting the peace process.

The EU’s move is thus the most severe intervention in the Norwegian initiative to date. It has devalued the peace process and left the Tamils isolated and confronting the Sri Lankan state, which has by stealth resumed a new round of aggression. Amidst the state’ relentless violence, the pre-truce economic embargo has also been gradually reimposed: a total blockade on cement and fuel into LTTE areas came in last week. In short, the war is already upon the Tamils. The EU ban sends an unambiguous message to all Sri Lankans that, when all is said and done, President Rajapakse is being backed by the international community against the LTTE. The logic that casts the LTTE, rather than the Sri Lankan state, as the primary aggressor is based partly on a statist disdain for armed non-state actors, partly on a failure to recall the full sequence of events that led Sri Lanka out of war and into peace - and back towards war - and, most importantly, a profound lack of understanding of the dynamics that have denied Sri Lanka a single year since independence free of ethnic tension. Mr. Solheim has given voice to international frustration with both sides. But it is the state which is stoking the shadow war. And it is the state which is receiving international support. That is why there will, sooner or later, be a return to open war.

Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger guerrillas have developed a “sophisticated” maritime network and they must now be looking for ways to meet the challenges of the latest global maritime security regimes, an Indian scholar says.

Vijay Sakhuja, a former Indian Navy officer and now a senior fellow at the Observer Research Foundation, says that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) “has built up an impressive maritime infrastructure” and sharpened its maritime skills.

“The networks have kept pace with the changing technologies and have adapted themselves to counter the strategies of maritime forces,” says 14-page study, titled “The Dynamics of LTTE's Commercial Maritime Infrastructure”.

The LTTE, which controls a vast stretch of territory in Sri Lanka's northeast, also operates a powerful naval wing that is called “Sea Tigers”, which includes a suicide unit of its own known as “Black Sea Tigers”.

But as opposed to the Sea Tigers' fast moving attack vessels, the LTTE has built a mammoth maritime unit that mostly ferries legitimate cargo from one part of the world to another but also carries, when needed, arms and explosives for the Tigers.

Sakhuja says the LTTE's maritime assets and organisation “are quite capable and can well compete with the maritime facilities of a small island state” and they include a fleet of merchant ships, a large number of fishing trawlers, high-speed motor launches, and professionally trained crew.

“The LTTE may also have some vessels capable of carrying one to two shipping containers.”

Sakhuja's focus on the maritime wing, which he calls “impressive” and “sophisticated”, and says it has “kept pace with the changing technologies.

Besides, the Sea Tigers “have also sharpened their capability to attack enemy ships both in harbour and at sea”.

In view of the post 9/11 maritime security matrix being imposed upon states and the maritime community, the task before the LTTE is indeed demanding, says Sakhuja, who held several key appointments as a navy officer.

The latest security regimes include the Proliferation Security Initiative, the International Ship and Port Facility Security and those related to the Flag of Convenience.

“The LTTE would be probing for strategies that would ensure the security of its maritime enterprise of its covert operations. It will rely on its network of suppliers, safe havens for its ships and reliable crew for steering its fleet,” the study says.

“The requirements of security will therefore be carefully chosen by the LTTE so as not to impede its maritime trade, gun running, drug and human smuggling. It will build suitable responses to prevent a slowing down of its flow of finances and materials that serve as its umbilical cord.”

Sakhuja says the loss of Indian logistical support in the wake of the LTTE's 1991 assassination of former premier Rajiv Gandhi was the primary reason for it to augment its ocean bound maritime fleet to transport arms and ammunition from distant markets.

“The LTTE fleet of ocean going merchant ships operates independently of the Sea Tigers. The command, control and communication of the commercial fleets is different from that of the Sea Tigers.

“But the Sea Tigers are transferred on occasion to serve in the commercial fleet. These vessels engage in transporting a variety of general cargo like timber, cement, flour, sugar, salt and steel.

“It is important to keep in mind that [while] drug couriers with links to the LTTE have been arrested worldwide, but no LTTE ships transporting narcotics have been intercepted or searched.”

Sakhuja says it is difficult to determine the precise number of ships, trawlers and smaller vessels in the inventory of the LTTE but estimates this could vary from 12 to 15 ships that are 1,000 to 1,500 tons DWT (dead weight tonnage).

Similarly, he says that it would be fair to conclude that the LTTE cadres capable of undertaking open ocean and high sea operations would number at least 125.

“It is also possible that the LTTE may be augmenting its fleet operations by hiring crew from the Philippines and Indonesia that are the largest suppliers of merchant ship crew”.

April 9, 2006: Sri Lanka's navy has been rarely discussed in recent years, with much of the focus being on a long civil war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). However, Sri Lanka's navy is often involved in this war, as a frequent engagements off the northeast coast demonstrate.

Sri Lanka was a major naval base for England for years. In 1942, Japanese carriers attacked the bases there in an effort to destroy the Eastern fleet. Today, Sri Lanka's independence has left it without the protection of the Royal Navy. Independence (granted in 1948) will do that to a country.

But until the civil war began in the 1980s, Sri Lanka had no enemies at sea. Once the LTTE violence began, the threat at sea was mainly LTTE ships (small freighters and large fishing boats) smuggling people and weapons into northern Sri Lanka. The only weapons on these boats were small arms and RPGs, although some were rigged with explosives, with the LTTE crews killing themselves and the navy patrol boat alongside.

The Sri Lankan Navy of today makes do with a large assortment of patrol craft. Many of the larger vessels were purchased from China. The only domestic vessel is the Jayesagara, the survivor of a class of two. The other was sunk by a Tamil Tiger attack in 1994. Perhaps the most powerful ships are two Reshev-class missile craft purchased from Israel, modified with the deletion of three Gabriel II anti-ship missiles.

These vessels give the Sri Lankan Navy a potent punch against surface vessels. Sri Lanka's largest vessel is the SLNS Sarayu, purchased from India, a 1,650-ton patrol ship armed with three 40mm cannon and four 12.7mm machine guns. Sri Lanka operates three Shanghai II-class patrol craft (the survivors of a batch of six that were acquired), two Luchan-class patrol craft, one Haiqing-class patrol craft, and nine Haizhui-class patrol craft (a modified version of the Shanghai II-class patrol craft).

The Sri Lankan navy also has 83 small patrol craft from American, Israeli, British, Korean, French, and Sri Lankan sources. There is also a small contingent of landing craft, one Yuhai-class landing craft and two Yuqin-class landing craft from China, two landing craft built in Sri Lanka, a British air-cushioned landing craft, and two Australian catamaran personnel transports.

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Today, the long stretch of northern seas extending from Nagarkovil to Kokkuththoduvai is under the control of Liberation Tigers. After we evicted the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) from the Mullaitivu garrison, our control of northern seas has expanded and strengthened.

We move with complete freedom in these waters to transport our cadres and to distribute material needs to our movement. We will not hesitate to wage war with anyone who attempts to prevent us from exercising our freedom.

We have the power and right to develop the necessary infrastructure and military strength to provide security to our people within our homeland.

Some say that International laws do not permit parties "without a legal state" to own a naval force in seas belonging to a sovereign state. We have one thing to say to them. Every square-inch of land we control, and all infrastructure and areas we administer, were not given to us. We obtained these by force from our adversary.

More than 1200 sea-tigers sacrificed their lives during the last 15 years of struggle over maritime waters. We have now evolved into a formidable naval force commanding control over the northeastern seas. The price we have paid to earn our sovereign rights to waters is immeasurable.

Even during intense war, we were able to establish sea-links with distant lands at our will. No party was able to stop us then. How can anyone, especially within a period of peace, try to scuttle this ability? How can we permit this? Only recently the Head of Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) shook hands with us and was ready to start sea-tiger boats on a journey to the east. Now he is advancing new explanations to label our sea movements as illegal.

We are determined and will continue to engage in activities in sea in north-eastern waters that lie within our control perimeter. Any obstacle will be overcome with appropriate debilitating force.

Compiled from comments reported by Tamilnet

Amid near daily frights that Sri Lanka is once again at war, the international community seems at a loss as how to prevent a renewal of the conflict. Its actions even suggest that the only plan on the table is to allow hostilities to resume and figure out how to proceed after the dust has settled.

But the policies being pursued by international donors have contributed to this situation. International support has resulted in a strategic ‘no-loss’ scenario for the Sri Lankan state should it choose to resume hostilities. President Mahinda Rajapakse’s government has already ruled out the possibility of any form of powersharing, federal or otherwise, to resolve the decades long ethnic conflict. This is even though the international community has consistently stated that it sees a federal solution as the only viable means of ending the conflict, because neither side has the ability to win militarily and impose its preferred solution on the other.

The peace process, as presently envisaged by the international community is to conclude with a federal solution, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) disarmed and the Sri Lankan state reformed toward a pluralist democracy. That was the grand plan.

But the present Sri Lankan administration has ruled out a federal solution, having won the democratic backing of the majority Sinhalese to do so. Should President Rajapkse also win the impending war, he would be able to ensure any solution falls far short of a federal solution. Should he lose, he would have to accept international plans for de-militarisation (i.e. disarming of the LTTE) and a federal solution. In other words, he will be no worse off than he is now. As such, recent efforts by the donor community to deny much needed funding to the Sri Lankan state to deter its hawkish intent may be too little, too late.

By contrast, the LTTE’s position is far more finely balanced. Should the LTTE win the impending conflict it is still a very long way from its stated goal of achieving a separate state, as it would still need to overcome significant resistance from the international community. The LTTE has indicated a willingness to consider federalism. A military victory would aid its efforts in achieving a greater degree of autonomy, but not necessarily independence.

But should the organization suffer a substantial defeat at the hands of the Sri Lankan armed forces, that would be a major setback for its project and for Tamil political ambitions. Moreover, it is very likely that in the aftermath of a significant victory over the Tigers, President Rajapakse’s government would continue the war, even at the cost of heavy Tamil civilian casualties, and seek a final solution to the Tamil ‘problem.’

This, after all, was exactly what happened in the late nineties. After Sri Lankan forces wrested the Jaffna peninsula from the LTTE, President Chandrika Kumaratunga waged her infamous ‘war-for-peace’ - including an undisguised total embargo on food and medicine on Tamils in the so-called ‘uncleared’ areas. It should not be forgotten that for five years the war and the draconian embargo were sanctioned by Colombo’s international backers as a necessary evil towards ‘peace.’

Today, the major powers have already indicated that inflicting casualties on Tamil civilians in retribution for LTTE attacks is acceptable behaviour for the state. Repeated international messages commending Colombo’s ‘restraint’ in the face of LTTE attacks, whilst ignoring the retaliation by the military against Tamil civilians, have undoubtedly reinforced the message that such methods are acceptable. Other signs of the latitude extended to Colombo are the increasing omissions of civilian casualties in reports by the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM). The LTTE, meanwhile, is singled out for criticism in the SLMM’s statements and increasingly free comments by its spokespeople.

The result of these international policies is that for the LTTE, and the Tamil people as a whole, any shift in the balance of forces toward the Sri Lankan state could result in horrendous consequences. Sri Lanka would undoubtedly once receive a nod to pursue a ‘war for peace’ should victory over the Tigers be deemed feasible. Indeed, on more than one occasion in the past four years, even as the Tigers pursued peace, various states have threatened action against the LTTE should war break out. This has also reinforced the Sri Lankan state’s strategic incentives to return to conflict.

Meanwhile, the viability of imposing sanctions against Sri Lanka has consistently been undermined due to the diversity of competing powers which are courting Colombo. A recent example was the ease with which Sri Lanka, upon being turned down by India, turned to the Pakistan-China axis to purchase heavy weapons.

The members of the international community, individually and collectively, have their own ambitions in the region. The compromise of a federal solution is a recent international suggestion, coinciding with a heightened need for a stable peace in south Asia. Both the notion of federalism, and the Norwegian-brokered peace process, stem from a shift from backing Sri Lanka in defeating the LTTE to conceding a military solution is not viable.

The larger objectives for the international community have included restoring stability to this geopolitically crucial island and, whilst doing so, avoiding a bipolar military outcome on it, such as that on the Korean peninsula. The potential dynamics of two military powers on the island of Sri Lanka, both of which could be situated in opposing geopolitical influences would complicate the controlling interests in this crucial region. The present inaction of the international community is self-explanatory, given these concerns.

But the only effective means of preventing Sri Lanka slipping back into conflict would be to substantially alter the incentives of both sides for a new war. This would mean conveying to the Sri Lankan state that, should it pursue a military solution and lose, then an independent state in the Sri Lanka’s Northeast is an outcome that the international community would be prepared to accept.

It is not necessary to impress upon the LTTE that should it lose, then international backing for a federal solution would be jeopardized. That is obvious. However, conveying a message to the LTTE that the international community takes the prevailing balance of forces seriously and would take credible measures to ensure that the LTTE’s position is not undermined by Colombo’s buildup and ‘shadow war’ is more likely to dissuade the LTTE from engaging in a new conflict to prevent the Sri Lankan state from becoming powerful enough to overwhelm it.

But then, such assurances to the LTTE would contradict the international community’s wider objectives of ensuring a bipolar military situation does not persist into the future. Indeed, should maintaining the ‘balance of forces’ become the central axiom of the peace process then it would be difficult to exclude this philosophy from a potential solution. Federalism, it must be noted, is not necessarily a two-army setup.

The overwhelming ambition, which both the international community and the Sri Lankan state share, is that a single military actor ends up controlling the island. Under the peace process mapped out by the international community, this outcome was entirely feasible, even inevitable. It short, it entailed the LTTE disarming in exchange for the Sri Lankan state reforming. That such reforms would have been consistently and effectively blocked by the sizeable nationalist elements in the South is not a problem that had been adequately considered.

Ironically, it is this common interest that has prevented the international community from making the necessary, albeit substantial, shift in strategy and taking easy steps to protect the only thing that can prevent a return to conflict – a continuing balance of forces. This perception is reinforced by the inconsistent approach adopted by the international community toward the declared objective of a multicultural Sri Lanka. For example, the international community’s failure to pressure the Sri Lankan military to stop retaliating against Tamil civilians has contributed to renewed ethnic polarization across the island.

The failure by international actors to condemn the attack on the Uthayan newspaper in Jaffna, for example, and the larger failure to resist Sri Lanka’s measures to prevent foreign press and representatives of aid organizations from working in the Northeast are further evidence that the international community’s priority is not the creation of a truly liberal democracy, but the subduing of the Tamil rebellion. In other words, interests rather than humanitarian principles, are driving matters.

However, it is entirely likely that the international community is going to compelled to revisit its policies. The dynamics of the conflict continue to evolve and basing future policy determinations on observations of the past is not likely to prove fruitful. Given the scale and nature of the war which the Sri Lankan military intends to fight and the tremendous resistance the LTTE is demonstrably putting together, the conflict will have substantial, if not irrevocable, polarizing effects on the island’s peoples.

Meanwhile, the international community’s failures to underwrite and ensure implementation of a number of agreements made as part of the Norwegian peace process, including the still-born Post-Tsunami Operational Management Structure (P-TOMS) has resulted in deep disillusionment amongst the Tamils.

There are three potential outcomes to a future military conflict: an overwhelming victory for either side or a continued military impasse. All three have consequences that make the international community’s envisaged outcome less likely.

The Sri Lankan military decision to fight a dirty war against civilians will result in an extremely polarized Tamil community in the homeland and Diaspora. Should that occur in either the event that there is a new stalemate or that there is a LTTE victory, the Tamils will demand a two state solution (or, at the very least, a federal solution where they control their own defence and finance). The only scenario where a one military solution is possible will be where Sri Lanka secures an overwhelming victory. But that will still result in stark ethnic polarization and, in all likelihood, Sri Lanka will descend into a slow bleeding insurgency.

Ultimately there needs to be a recognition by international actors that sanctioning of state violence contradicts many of their stated principles and thereby ensures that a federal solution, even in the medium term, becomes an impossibility. Furthermore, it needs to be acknowledged that the objective conditions for preventing a bipolar military outcome to Sri Lanka’s conflict disappeated when the LTTE overran the Elephant Pass base complex in 2000. The subsequent Norwegian peace process was indeed a valiant effort to put the genie back in the bottle but the uncompromising position of the Sri Lankan state has scuttled that project. The question is what to do now.

Jaffna based civilian organizations are protesting the abduction and killing by Sri Lankan security forces of eight youth guarding the Kelathu Amman temple in Jaffna during the night of Saturday, May 6. The organisations blamed the deaths on the government forces and called for an immediate end to extrajudicial killings and harassment of civilians.

Villagers who went searching for the eight missing youths in Manthuvil East in Thenmaradchi, Jaffna, found blood traces, pieces of clothes, 3 identity cards and six spent bullet cases.

The youth had gone to the Seerani Kelakkai temple in Manthuvil East, northeast of Chavakachcheri, to protect temple valuables during the grand Kumbabishekam festival being observed at the site. A teacher, who was also general secretary of the temple trustee board and four students were among the victims.

Blood traces found between the temple chariot and the temple, were covered with sand and boot prints were visible, press reports said.

Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers go to the temple site regularly each evening., villagers said, stressing that the SLA was fully aware of the festival. On Saturday night, the soldiers also came to the site around 10:00 p.m.

The villagers report vehicle movement around 1:00 a.m. in the area, a few minutes before they heard more than eight gunshots. At 4:00 a.m. in the morning, another unusual movement was observed: a Buffel Armoured Personel Carrier and a jeep with SLA soldiers went to the site and stayed there for more than 30 minutes, reports said.

Later, there were reports that the bodies had been found in Kombimunai forest area near Kapputhu, an area straddling Vadamaradchy-Thenmaradchy border.

More than 1,000 residents had gathered to look for the bodies of the eight. But security forces dispersed them on Sunday afternoon. Immediately, SLA soldiers sealed off the roads and prevented entry to Kapputhu village. Several hundred troops were deployed near Kalikai junction that leads to Kapputhu, local residents said.

The police also imposed a curfew on the peninsula from midnight Sunday to 4pm Monday as the situation became tense following the reports of the bodies being found. The A9 highway leading into Jaffna from Killinochchi via the Muhamalai entry and exit point was also closed for civilian traffic during the curfew, while security was also strengthened at key locations in the Jaffna peninsula.

Members of Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), who visited the site the following Monday morning, said that they could not locate any bodies. However, another human rights organisation found blood, empty cartridge shells and clothes backing the villagers reports.

The SLMM had been criticised earlier for delaying in getting to the site. "Almost 30 hours have passed since a crime against humanity has taken place at a temple site. The truce monitors from the SLMM in Jaffna are yet to visit the crime site or approach the area where the bodies are said to be found," accused S. Kajendran, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP for Jaffna district.

SLMM officials explained that the delay was caused due to the lack of resources – they did not have a translator or driver, according to the Director of the LTTE Peace Secretariat, Mr. S. Puleedevan, who said the SLMM delay was "too late".

Separately, a special investigating team of the Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission (SLHRC) in Jaffna inspected the site on Tuesday, May 9, and recorded the statements of more than 50 residents. The team found blood stains, four empty cartridge shells and discarded clothes lying at site from where noise of gunfire was heard by residents, reports said.

Residents noted that it took Kodikamam police officials four days to visit the site, with police only visiting after the SLHRC team had been and gone.

A week before the killings, SLA soldiers had warned a group of civilians who were sleeping at the temple after festival preparations. S. Kajendran, Jaffna district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian said that the villagers had registered suspicious movement of a Jeep after the warning issued by the soldiers.

International truce monitors said last week they believe Sri Lankan troops are involved in killing ethnic Tamil civilians in the island’s north, contrary to government denials.

The unarmed Nordic Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) said probable Tamil Tiger attacks on the military have been followed by disappearances and open killings of ethnic Tamil civilians.

“We have very strong indications that at least part of the government troops have been involved in these killings,” Jouni Suninen, the Finnish ex-army officer who heads the monitors’ northern Vavuniya office, said.

“The pattern is clear,” he added. In one case, a civilian was killed 60 metres from an army checkpoint. The soldiers told the monitors they heard nothing.

Suninen said at least 40 people have been killed in the last month by suspected Tigers, soldiers or associated groups around Vavuniya, just beyond the southern border of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) territory.

The government denies any involvement in civilian killings, which come amid fears a low intensity conflict raging despite a 2002 truce could escalate into an all out return to a two-decade civil war.

The Tigers have pulled out of peace talks indefinitely and have warned the island is moving towards the fringes of war.

“Our troops are not involved in anything like that,” said army spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe. “They are disciplined.”

For the first time, the monitoring mission’s field staff were authorised to speak on the record about what they had found. They say publicity is the only weapon they have.

Previously, all media comment from the SLMM - which has 60 unarmed monitors from Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway and Iceland - has come from its Colombo headquarters.

Driving along a road only a couple of miles from the border in his white jeep, Finnish homicide policeman Jukka Heiskanen points out where three suspected Tiger fragmentation mine ambushes hit military patrols.

Some believe the Tigers deliberately wanted to inflame tensions and provoke retaliation to win sympathy in their struggle for a separate homeland for ethnic Tamils.

The monitors say suspected military killings target civilians believed to be LTTE-linked. Ponnuthurai Thayanithi, 27, killed last week, had one sister who had died fighting for the Tigers but was not believed to have any direct link.

“This is where the girl was killed in the middle of the day,” Heiskanen said. “As you can see, we’re about 60 metres from an army checkpoint. There are always three soldiers there. The girl had two bullets in her head. They didn’t hear or see anything.”

Heiskanen said he asked the soldiers why they had not noticed the killing taking place within sight and earshot. They said that as the shots were fired, there was a particularly strong gust of wind, so they had heard nothing.

“I said ‘how do you know what was the exact time?’” he said. “It is ridiculous. They don’t even try to make things up.”

Police initially refused to come and inspect the body, said Heiskanen, adding the SLMM patrols were increasingly moving beyond simple monitoring into peacekeeping.

People have disappeared at government checkpoints and turned up dead. A white van seen before some of the killings appears to have moved with impunity through checkpoints and in one case was reportedly seen leaving an army camp, the monitors say.

Tamil civilians in Sri Lanka’s Northeast are bearing the brunt of an accelerating cycle of violence as vengeful troops, harried by a shadowy, unseen enemy, lash out at nearby residents instead.

Dozens of civilians have been shot out of hand, been abducted and murdered or killed in indiscriminate firing by Sri Lanka Army and Navy personnel. The Air Force has bombed civilian dwellings in retaliation for attacks blamed on the LTTE.

Jaffna has seen many of the incidents of mass killings, but civilians are being killed in all of Sri Lanka’s Tamil districts by vengeful troops taking casualties from a series of gun and grenade attacks.

The LTTE this week criticized international ceasefire monitors of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) for not doing more to stop the killings.

“Though the injured victims, the relatives of the killed and our Political office have submitted concrete evidence to the SLMM in Jaffna proving the killings of innocent civilians by security forces and paramilitaries, the evidence has not been made public by the SLMM,” the head of the LTTE’s political wing in Jaffna said.

“Unfortunately, this delay has resulted in marked escalation in killings,” he said further. “Withholding this evidence has in fact encouraged the killers to continue the murders.”

Analysts and reporters say Sri Lanka is at war, albeit an undeclared one. In the past two weeks, Sri Lanka’s air force has bombed targets in Tamil –Tiger held parts of the island, Navy gunboats have been sunk in Sea Tiger attacks, and deep penetration units of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and paramilitaries have launched raids into LTTE controlled areas.

But both sides are, officially at least, still committed to the February 2002 ceasefire. But international monitors say a ‘low intensity’ war has gradually broken out. The monitors, who oversee the truce, have meanwhile become mired in controversy and some have narrowly escaped becoming caught in the crossfire.

With almost 300 deaths estimated since early April and the worst military confrontation since the truce erupting at sea last week, the ongoing violence looks just like the now remembered periods of conflict, replete with clashes at sea and military retaliation against Tamil civilians.

“You could in some definition say we already have a war. We don’t have a peace agreement, we have a ceasefire agreement. So there is a war ongoing. It is a low-intensity war. You can say that,” Major General Ulf Henricsson, head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) told Reuters last week.

Over the weekend enraged Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) personnel and paramilitary allies unleashed a wave of killings amongst Tamil residents of the islets of Jaffna, where the Navy has large bases.

At least thirteen people were killed when Navy troops and paramilitaries moved through residential areas throwing grenades and firing. Four children, including a baby and a toddler, were amongst the bloodied corpses found by fellow residents.

The Navy personnel were exacting revenge for the deaths of 18 navy personnel in a clash with the Sea Tigers off the Jaffna coast on Thursday.

Two Dvora gunboats were sunk and a ship carrying 700 soldiers was spared by Sea Tiger boats that trapped – only after frantic appeals by the SLMM whose officials were on board the ship.

The SLMM condemned the LTTE for violating the truce. But the LTTE, saying it was merely responding to SLN attacks on its own boats engaged in a training exercise, has warned monitors not to board SLN vessels in future.

“We urge you for the last time not to be on board Sri Lankan naval vessels until further notice from us. If you chose to ignore our warning and request, we are not responsible for the consequences,” the LTTE said in a letter which pointed out that the SLN was using the monitors’ presence as cover for its activities.

As this edition goes to print, there is confusion over the SLMM’s stand on monitoring the sea. Having declared on Saturday that the SLMM would no longer monitor the seas, the Nordic-staffed mission was reportedly acceding to Sri Lankan government pressure not to pull out of its naval role.

Residents in north and east Sri Lanka who were forced to flee their homes during the island’s two-decade civil war are bracing themselves, Reuters also reported. After the spate of attacks in recent weeks, some have packed their suitcases, while others are determined to stay put.

On Friday United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan called on the Sri Lankan Government and the LTTE to “change course and bring the country back on a path to peace” in the wake of a continuing upsurge of violence.

In a statement issued by his spokesman, Mr. Annan said he was disturbed by latest news of major sea and aerial attacks, including an attack on the troop vessel.

“He repeats his call on all the parties to summon the political will to resume their dialogue under the facilitation of the Norwegian Government,” the statement concluded.

Two weeks ago UN agencies began delivering food, safe water and other basic needs to over thousands of people displaced by recent clashes and government bombardments in parts of the island’s northeast.

But amid soaring civilian casualties, the international community’s hesitance to condemn the Sri Lanka government for its bombardments of Tamil areas has heightened Tamil frustrations. The impunity with which Sri Lankan forces are abducting and killing Tamil civilians or simply shooting them out of hand has fuelled Tamil rage.

Tamil press reports say large numbers of youth are joining the LTTE, which has urged the people to join the liberation struggle.

Meanwhile, the international community has condemned the LTTE for the violence, whilst praising the ‘restraint’ of the Sri Lanka military.

“The reckless behaviour of the LTTE in the last days can only contribute to a dangerous escalation that results in growing hostilities and jeopardises any possibility for future peace talks,” the European Union said in a statement.

“The claim by LTTE that SLMM has put its own monitors at risk by allowing them to travel on naval vessels is utterly unacceptable,” it added.

The United States on Friday condemned the attack on a Sri Lankan naval vessel, saying the violence might result in returning of civil war.

“We are deeply concerned about the escalating violence by the Tamil Tigers, which has put Sri Lanka at risk of a return to war,” said a statement by Richard Boucher, assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian Affairs.

“We urge the government of Sri Lanka to continue to show restraint in the face of these provocations,” said the US statement.

However, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse threatened the LTTE with further attacks by his military.

“If they insist on continuing their attacks, I will have to defend my country,” Rajapakse said in an interview published in Colombo’s Sunday times.

“I have vowed to protect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka,” Rajapakse was quoted as saying.

Amid international calls for talks, Rajapakse told the Sunday Times this week: “It is my personal view that the ethnic issue should not have been internationalised. We should have treated it as a domestic issue and resolved it ourselves. As for me, I do not want to internationalise it any further.”

However, Rajapakse also demanded the international community must pressure the Tigers to enter into peace negotiations with him.

“It is important to have direct negotiations to de-escalate violence which have come very far”, Japan’s peace envoy to Sri Lanka Yasushi Akashi said last week after visiting Sri Lanka.