Sri Lanka is massing troops in Trincomalee for a major ground offensive against the Liberation Tigers held parts of the district. The intense bombardment of the LTTE-controlled Eachchilampathu and Sampur in recent days are the opening phases of what Sri Lanka hopes will be a significant military victory.

The LTTE, whilst pointing out that a Sri Lankan offensive is in the works, have avoided commenting on what its response is likely to be. That the Tigers will resist fiercely is not in doubt. The question for many is how and whether the war will widen to engulf other parts of the island. Whilst various military analysts speculate, the LTTE itself is maintaining a studied silence.

But of one thing there can be no doubt. Sri Lanka’s return to violence was inevitable. The international community’s failure to disentangle their own ambitions from the peace process is largely to blame. Moreover, that it would erupt in Trincomalee was not only analytically predictable, the road to war was amply signposted by numerous developments over the past two years.

To being with, Trincomalee has always been a contested site. The Sri Lankan military has been seeking to drive the LTTE, if not the Tamils, from the eastern district for years. The strategic harbour, coveted by more than one geopolitical actor, its abundance of natural resources and its centrality to the Tamil national identity meant it had a special place in every one of a number of competing ambitions.

But that is not why the present confrontation was foreseeable. It was inevitable because Sri Lanka began to mobilise for war during the peace process with increasing brazenness and the international community simply ignored it.

A survey of key events over the past two years and the international community’s attendant acti-ons is in order to defend what might seem an outlandish claim.

A central actor in this regard is the international monitoring mission overseeing the February 2002 Ceasefire Agreement (CFA). The CFA was drafted by the protagonists based on what (in their view) were necessary safeguards.

Whilst the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) was tasked with ensuring compliance, the mission quickly lost focus. It became preoccupied with details, with cataloguing individual incidents and investigating them to attribute blame.

This micro-focus meant the SLMM simply ignored the macro-breaches of the CFA. The focus on individual killings and attacks, combined with a predilection for amassing statistics, meant that manifest trends were simply ignored by the SLMM.

An example is the Sri Lankan military’s failure to vacate thousands of schools, places of worship and private homes. This macro-failure meant that hundreds of thousands of displaced were never settled. It is not that killings and individual incidents are not important, but rather that the SLMM was meant to ensure compliance with a wider normalisation process and not merely to count complaints.

It is in this context of a monitoring mission focussed on minutia - and an international community preoccupied with ‘containing’ the LTTE - that Sri Lanka’s military began its build up. Just as it had done during the ill-fated 1994-5 talks, the military simply ignor-ed obligations imposed by agreements reached by its political masters. Instead it concentrated single-mindedly on its war preparations.

The extensive purchases of weaponry over the 2002-4 by all three service arms are well documented now. The Navy and Air Force doubled their numerical strength. The Army tripled its tank strength and doubled its artillery power. Amid the handwringing over what the LTTE might or might not have acquired, the implications of Sri Lanka’s substantially ramping up of its military capability wasn’t even considered.

But it is in Trincomalee that Sri Lanka’s multiphased strategy for military capture was most clearly discernable - even to the point of brazenness.

Preparations for the present Sri Lankan offensive began a very long time ago. It even predates President Mahinda Rajapakse’s ascension to power.

Soon after the December 2004 tsunami smashed into the eastern coastline, the military reimposed an embargo on fuel, cement and other building materials from being taken into LTTE-controlled areas of Trincomalee particularly.

Even amid the ultimately futile discussions over the Post Tsunami Operational Management Structure (PTOMS), LTTE officials in the east were protesting that there was no point to the exercise as long as the embargo continued on the ground.

With regards to the present crisis, this is the first failure of the SLMM. Despite repeated complaints, the SLMM did nothing. Embargos are not easily catalogued. The mission monitored incidents but completely ignored the wider picture.

The sanctions on LTTE-controlled parts of Trincomalee have thus been in place for 20 months. They were imposed in complete violation of the CFA, but no SLMM report has covered their deleterious effects.

Over time, the Sri Lankan military also imposed an embargo on food and medical supplies entering LTTE-controlled areas, particularly in Trincomalee.

There were widespread protests by the Tamils. Even amid the controversy over the Buddha statue in Trincomalee central bus stand, the protestors were agitating over the embargo. But these were ignored as LTTE-inspired.

As long ago as last December, the Trincomalee District Tamil Peoples’ Consortium (TDTPC) appealed to newly elected President Mahinda Rajapskse “to take necessary steps in alleviating the hardships of the people living villages in the Muttur east and Eachchilampathu divisions by lifting the restriction on transport of essential food items and building materials through Kaddaiparichchan and Mahindapura SLA camps to their villages.”

No one paid any attention to the protests. But now both Kaddaiparichchan and Mahindapura have come to attention of the dimmest of analysts studying Sri Lanka.

This and numerous other appeals fellow on deaf ears. Not only in Temple Trees, where it might be expected to, but in the numerous diplomatic missions in Colombo and, in particularly, SLMM HQ.

This was the second strategic failure by the SLMM. Not only were the normalisation aspects of the CFA being ignored, the entire range of ‘goodwill measures’ put out by Ranil Wickremsinghe’s government had now been rolled back. Yet alarm bells failed to ring.

That the Vanni was not as badly affected is partly due to other mitigating circumstances - including the goods flow to Jaffna - but mainly due to Sri Lanka’s particular focus on Trincomalee.

The SLMM thus failed to appreciate the emergent crisis and invoke international pressure to reverse what was now clearly taking pace.

Whether this failure stemmed from an inability to grasp the complex dynamics of Sri Lanka or a deliberate focus on the LTTE’s violations over Sri Lanka’s is a matter of conjecture. In either case, it failed if its intent was to prevent a return to war.

Amid the rapid escalation since December of the long running ‘shadow war’ into a ‘low-intensity war’ the SLMM became prolific note takers and data collectors. But yet it missed the big picture: LTTE-controlled Eachchilampathu and Sampur were being starved and subject to systematic deprivation.

Even the much-vaunted report compiled by the SLMM between Geneva 1 (in February) and the abortive Geneva 2 focussed, as ever, on killings, claymores, abdu-ctions and other individual incidents. There was still no interest in the strategic picture.

It was in late April that Sri Lanka’s military showed its cards. Within hours of the attempted suicide bombing of Army commander Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka, the military launched air and artillery strikes against Sampur and Eachchilampathu. There were attacks against elsewhere too, but these were sideshows. LTTE areas in Trincomalee bore the brunt.

This was the third failure of international monitoring. The details of destruction and casualties inflicted were duly noted.

But the SLMM did nothing to put the pieces together, even when LTTE officials warned of a resumption of war by Colombo. LTTE protests were dismissed as inevitable complaints of one party to a conflict against the other.

But something important had begun to happen on the ground. Civilian casualties in the late April were light - certainly in comparison to the dozens of civilians killed by rockets and shells in the past few weeks.

But the purpose of the Sri Lankan bombardment was primarily to create a humanitarian crisis which, coupled with the now year-long embargo, would begin to rapidly deplete any remaining stockpiles of food and medicine in LTTE-controlled areas.

The massive displacement did trigger international concern and occasionally even anger. But, as past experience has shown the Sri Lankan state, these sentiments dissipate as quickly as they emerge. Once relief is pledged and NGOs tasked to begin rehabilitation, things return to normal in international capitals.

Between April and July, Sampur and Eachchilampathu were regularly hammered by Sri Lankan air and artillery strikes. In the first three weeks of July there was near daily shelling of Muttur East and Sampur. MBRL and artillery fire was directed on July 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 11, 12, 15, 16 and 18.

All of these produced further waves of displacement, adding to the forty thousand people displaced in April. The significance of the massive humanitarian requirement this imposed on a region which had been subject to embargo since early 2005 was completely lost on the SLMM.

It was on July 20 that the Maavil Aru sluice gates were closed and the present crisis is said to have started. This is probably the first time the SLMM (and the international community it reports to) began to take a close interest in events in the Trincomalee district.

But it was certainly not the beginning of the crisis. Rather it was the opening phase of confrontation.

For Sri Lanka’s military, confident it had weakened the LTTE’s ability to withstand a major offensive by depleting its stockpiles of food and medicine, began to scout around for a suitable reason to initiate a shooting war.

The closing of the sluice gates provided just such an opportunity. Which is why within two days, Colombo launched airstrikes and vowed a military offensive. For all the proclamations about ‘humanitarian war’ this was about something much bigger: a project to destroy the LTTE in Trincomalee.

But things went wrong when the Tigers put up unexpected resistance. Despite fighting in a awkward corner of Trincomalee’s variegated geography, the Tigers stalled the Army advance and inflicted casualties.

What should have been a short sharp clash, which would have drawn more LTTE cadres into suicidal open confrontation before the Army’s massed heavy weapons, became the reverse: the SLA found itself committing more and more troops to overrun a relatively minor target.

Then last Tuesday the LTTE struck back with a ferocity that took the Sri Lankan military by surprise. The Tigers took Muttur town with little effort having bypassed a number of SLA camps whose outer defences had been quickly overrun and whose central positions remained under siege.

When the LTTE suddenly withdrew from a devastated Muttur three days later, it declared its mission over. It said it had pre-empted a major offensive by the SLA against its controlled areas.

This claim has been misunderstood. The LTTE did not expect to permanently thwart a Sri Lankan onslaught, but to create specific difficulties for Colombo. In particular, the LTTE sought to demonstrate that there would be no quick victory in Sampur and Eachchilampathu and that its defence of Maavil Aru was no fluke.

In short, there will be no short, sharp war, but a grinding mess.

The immediate implication of that is the Sri Lankan military’s change in strategy.

In the past week, Colombo has unleashed a torrent of rockets and shells on the two LTTE controlled areas, destroying roads, bridges and major buildings. Colombo intends therefore a ‘broad-front’ onslaught as it did in Jaffna in 1995, Kilinochchi in 1996, Mankulum in 1998 and Elephant Pass in 2001.

Yet when the SLMM chief, Ulf Henricsson, fled to an LTTE bunker on Sunday to escape the dozens of Sri Lankan shells fired at him he had no idea what was happening. Even though the SLMM has been taking notes in Trincomalee every day for the past two years.

“Trincomalee has been paralysed by the violence. There have been blasts close to the navy camp and people in the surrounding area are evacuating.

“They are carrying their belongings away, but there is no real place for them to go. The fighting is 20km away, but everyone fears that violence will spread towards the town.

“All the offices are closed now and people don’t really know what is happening. There is a war out there, there is fighting. It is very heavy and I feel the casualties will be high.

“We can hear the action but we can’t really see it. It’s very frightening. I live near the navy base which has been attacked by shells.

“Fighter planes are also in the surrounding areas. We can hear the noise of the planes overhead.

“We know there is fighting in the middle of the sea. Our home is very close to the sea - and so we are glued to the news trying to find out what exactly is happening.

“This is the second time I have experienced a wave of violence like this. I am from Jaffna originally but we had to come here after 1987 when there were bombardments and aerial attacks in our area.

“Trincomalee is different to Jaffna. The city is divided equally between Sinhalese, Tamil and Muslim.

“But we fear that the armed forces support the Sinhalese. They are fully Sinhalese themselves and we feel totally unrepresented.

“Community relations have been getting much worse. There is a lot of distrust these days. Last April, I had a bad experience in the bank where I work.

“There was a bomb blast near the marketplace and in the aftermath, a largely Sinhalese crowd gathered outside the bank and threw stones at the building. We narrowly escaped but a lot of damage was done.

“People walked in and broke the computers, threw our flower vases about. The army troops were around but they didn’t take any measures to control the crowd - in fact, we felt they were laughing at it all. It was terrible.

“It is actions like that which make us feel that the politicians, the people in power and the security forces only support the Sinhala population here.

“We are innocent too, and we don’t have any safety or security. The last few months have seen a real deterioration in quality of life for people living in this town.”

In the heaviest fighting since the February 2002 ceasefire, the Liberation Tigers last week launched a ground offensive against Sri Lanka Army positions in Trincomalee, saying they were pre-empting a major onslaught against their controlled areas in the district.

Hundreds of LTTE fighters backed by artillery and mortars last Wednesday stormed into government-controlled areas, attacking four major Sri Lanka Army (SLA) camps and entering the government-controlled town of Muttur.

Up to seventeen SLA mini-camps had fallen to a multi-pronged LTTE advance into the Muttur district, reports said.

The overnight offensive took the government by surprise, reports said. The SLA had for the week prior to the LTTE attack been engaged in an offensive against an LTTE-controlled resevoir in Maavil Aru in southern Trincomalee district.

Muttur was the scene of the heaviest fighting. The predominantly Muslim town lies on the coast directly across the bay from the famous Trincomalee harbour.

Muttur’s jetty overlooks the mouth of Trincomalee harbour and the town is seen as strategically important.

The harbour itself came under fire by LTTE artillery based in Sampur, with almost 36 shells hitting government installations.

A troop transport coming into Trincomalee carrying Sri Lankan soldiers on leave from Jaffna had a narrow escape after being targeted by LTTE artillery and Sea Tiger gunboats.

On Wednesday intense fighting raged in Muttur as hundreds of heavily armed LTTE cadres who have taken control of the town centre laid siege to four Sri Lanka Army (SLA) camps on its periphery, residents said.

Resident Abdul Rauf told the BBC Tamil service that hundreds of LTTE cadres who moved into Muttur could be seen in all parts of the town and that Sri Lankan troops had retreated into camps located at four corners of the town.

“The LTTE has completely surrounded the camps. Sri Lankan troops cannot come in or break out,” he said.

Major Rajapakse, Sri Lanka’s Deputy Defence spokesman, denying the eyewitness reports told the BBC LTTE cadres were ‘desperately’ withdrawing before an SLA counterattack and have taken refuge in Muttur hospital, banks and government buildings.

“It is a total lie,” he said of reports that SLA was not in control of the Muttur town.

After four days of fighting, which killed 30 odd troops on each side and scores of civilians, mainly by artillery shells, the LTTE withdrew to its controlled areas.

The LTTE pull-back came after days of shelling and mortar and artillery duels around Muttur which, after its entire population fled, was left a ghost town, buildings badly damaged and riddled with bullet holes.

Aid workers estimate 20,000 to 30,000 civilians fled from Mutur on Friday to escape shelling, several thousand of whom have reached the government-held town of Kantale around 20 miles (30 km) southwest.

The SLN ferried journalists south across Trincomalee harbour into Mutur for the first time since the fighting, landing them on the beach in small assault boats.

A Reuters correspondent amongst them said Sri Lankan troops looked exhausted, their faces covered with grime and weapons hanging loosely at their sides.

Along the water line, houses already damaged by the 2004 tsunami stood deserted. The navy camp at the jetty was devastated and just two civilians were seen on the streets.

As troops checked buildings for booby-traps, reporters heard mortar and small arms fire nearby. The navy said between some Tiger fighters were moving from house to house in the outer suburbs of Muttur.

On Thursday, artillery shells hit locations in Muttur where the town’s residents were sheltering, prompting a panic-stricken exodus after dozens were killed.

Sri Lanka’s largest Muslim party Thursday accused the Sri Lankan government of killing the civilians.

Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) leader, Rauf Hakeem told AFP: “the people were killed in attacks carried out by the security forces.”

“The government must take responsibility for the killing of civilians,” he told AFP, calling on both sides to stop their offensives and return to the positions held at the time the 2002 truce came into being.

At least ten Muslim civilians who sought refuge in Arabic College in Muttur town were killed when an artillery shell hit the college Thursday around noon. About nine thousand Muslim civilians, men, women and children had sought refuge in the Arabic College.

Twelve Muslim villagers in Al Nuriah Muslim school in Thoppur were killed Thursday evening when SLA artillery shells hit the school.

Five Muslim civilians were killed in artillery fire on Friday that hit a school in Thoppur. The civilian victims were about to leave the Al Hamra Muslim Vidyalayam when artillery shells fired by Sri Lankan artillery in Trincomalee base began hitting civilian areas.

The LTTE’s military spokesman, Irasaiah Ilanthiayan, told TamilNet that the LTTE troops returned to their original positions as per February 22, 2002 Ceasefire Agreement by midnight Friday.

32 LTTE fighters, including a Lieutenant Colonel and another senior cadre of the Tigers were killed in the operation that was mean to exert pressure on Colombo’s military offensive to resolve a civilian dispute, Mr. Ilanthirayan said.

Two Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) Dvora Fast Attack Crafts (FACs) were destroyed and sunk, 3 boats were damaged. The LTTE said two Black Tigers and seven Sea Tigers were killed in the seas off Trincomalee harbour on Tuesday.

Mortars, Light Machine Guns and ammunition were seized from SLA camps attacked by the LTTE in Mahindapura, Selvanagar, 64th Mile Post, Kaddaiparichchan camp, Muthur Jetty and Pachchanoor. SLA camp attached to Muthur Police was also attacked.

The speedy operation was brought to an end as most of the targets were overrun, Ilanthirayan said. Lt. Col. Kunchan (Isayamuthan) was one of the two senior LTTE cadres who were killed.

“Every military operation is limited till the objective of the mission is achieved. Our objective of the mission, with a defensive character, was accomplished and our forces returned to their positions as per February 22, 2002 Ceasefire,” Ilanthirayan said.

“The operation aimed at giving a military pressure was speedily carried out and ceased the same way, as our national leader was highly concerned of the humanitarian situation in the entire Trincomalee district,” Ilanthirayan further said.

“We launched the operation after notifying the Muslim leaders in Muthur Mosque Society two hours in advance Tuesday night. We launched the operation at 2:00 a.m. Community leaders were notified midnight to evacuate civilians to safe locations.”

Announcing the start of its offensive, the LTTE said Wednesday its military activities in Trincomalee, including the operation against Sri Lankan military camps in the early hours Wednesday, were intended to disrupt Sri Lanka’s indiscriminate onslaught against Tamil civilians in LTTE-controlled areas.

The LTTE’s military spokesman, I. Ilanthirayan, said that amid the indiscriminate bombing and shelling of civilian areas by the Sri Lankan armed forces as part of their offensive in the Mavil Aru region, there was an “urgent humanitarian need” that had compelled what he described as “defensive actions.”

For several days Sri Lankan forces had unleashed indiscriminate bombardment of civilian targets, prompting the Tigers to take proactive defensive measures, Mr. Ilanthirayan said.

As such, the LTTE had targeted the Sri Lankan military’s artillery bases as well as the supply lines to troops massed in the Mavil Aaru area, he said.

The naval clashes that erupted in the seas of Trincomalee Tuesday were also part of efforts to disrupt Sri Lanka’s offensive, he said.

The SLN vessel ‘Jet Liner’ had got caught up in the LTTE’s such efforts. “It was not a specific target but entered the LTTE’s theatre of defensive action,” he added.

Mr. Ilanthirayan slammed the Sri Lankan government of President Mahinda Rajapakse for launching a military offensive on the pretext of a dispute over water – a dispute, he added, which had been in the process of being resolved before Colombo’s military intervention.

Mr. Ilanthirayan also confirmed that the Sea Tigers had clashed twice last Tuesday with the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) in the seas off Pulmoddai. He characterised these as ‘defensive

Diplomats and analysts say the February 2002 truce holds only on paper and that a two-decade civil war that has killed over sixty thousand civilians since 1983 has resumed.

“The government can play with semantics, but it’s hard to see what’s going on as anything but a war,” one Western diplomat told Reuters.

Joined the rest of the humanitarian community in condemning of the massacre of the 17 ACF staff members in Muthur, the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO) said the failure to investigate and punish those responsible for attacks on its own aid workers in the past had contributed to a climate of impunity.

“This horrific crime has taken the lives of 17 persons who were engaged in bringing relief and humanitarian assistance to those who were suffering as a result of the 2004 tsunami and the ongoing conflict.”

“These 17 persons dedicated their lives to helping others and their lives were taken by the deliberate act of some criminals. This act can not go unpunished.”

“Since the abduction, and disappearance, of the 7 TRO employees in January 2006 there has been an air of impunity. The investigations produced no results or reports and the criminal acts against humanitarian workers continued.”

“This [latest] incident is the end product of this lack of investigation and accountability by the authorities.”

“It’s unfortunate that the myriad of initiatives and appeals undertaken by the TRO (appeals to the International Community, the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, President of Sri Lanka, press conferences, etc) to release the abducted TRO humanitarian workers went unheard and remain unsolved, thus reinforcing the deep-rooted culture of impunity that exists in Sri Lanka,”

The repeated plea of the TRO to provide safety and security for all humanitarian workers in the NE from the GOSL and the International Community was ignored and never given due attention, the Tamil agency said.

“This is yet another incident which sadly reflects the indifference and lack of empathy afforded to people working under volatile political conditions.”

Ten TRO staff members were kidnapped by Army-backed paramilitaries in Batticaloa district on January 30, 2006. Three were released, but the other seven have ‘disappeared’ and many believe they have been killed in custody.

Despite repeated appeals by local and international human rights groups, the TRO workers have never been found. Promises by the Sri Lankan government to investigate the disappearances has been dismissed by the TRO which insists the security forces and its paramilitaries are responsible.

Shortly after the TRO abductions, Army-backed paramilitaries entered the offices of MAG (Mines Advisory Group) in Batticaloa on February 22 and beat a local staffer working at the office, and threatened the British national heading the Batticaloa office of MAG

On May 21, 2006, grenades were thrown at the Muttur offices of Nonviolent Peaceforce, injuring a Serbian peaceworker and two passing civilians.

At the same time, the offices of two humanitarian NGOs in Mutur, including ZOA Refugee Care, were also attacked with grenades.

Other aid workers in Muttur have been attacked by Sinhalese mobs in recent days. Supplies sent by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) for displaced Muslims and Tamils have been blocked by angry Sinhalese in the Trincomalee district.

Sinhala hardliners in Sri Lanka routinely accuse aid agencies and NGOs of being pro-Tamil and backing the Tamil Tigers.

Relatives of some of the 17 aid workers shot dead execution-style in Muttur town last week blamed Sri Lankan security forces Tuesday whilst diplomats were skeptical of government claims the Tamil Tigers were responsible.

Correspondents with Reuters news agency interviewed relatives of some of the seventeen staff of international aid group Action Contre La Faim (ACF).

The father of one aid worker said another son was amongst five Tamil students shot, also execution-style by Sri Lankan commandos in Trincomalee earlier this year.

15 of the ACF staff had been found dead on the floor of their ruined office, while two had been gunned down while apparently trying to escape in a car.

In the office, the bodies of fourteen Tamil and one Muslim aid worker, clad in ACF T-shirts, had bullet wounds and most of them lay face down.

“We believe it was the army,” 50-year-old Richard Arulrajah, whose 24 year-old son was among those shot dead, told Reuters.

“On Friday he phoned and said he would be back by Saturday. After that, we heard the military personnel came and shot them.”

Some Sri Lankan hardliners have in the past accused aid agencies of being pro-Tamil, ignoring the majority Sinhalese and backing the Tigers.

Other aid workers have been attacked by Sinhalese mobs in recent days, and troops had been under strain in heavy fighting.

The deaths were the first in the French agency’s 25-year history. A furious French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy condemned what he called “the appalling and cowardly murders.”

The Sri Lanka Army accused the LTTE, but diplomats are sceptical, Reuters reported Tuesday.

“All of our initial information suggests the government was involved,” the news agency quoted one western diplomat as saying. “The government’s only option is to have a full independent investigation with international support.”

It was all too much for Ponuthurai Yogarajah, 62, who lost one son in the killing and another in January when five Tamil students were shot dead, also execution style, on Trincomalee beach by Sri Lankan special forces.

“There is no use in living,” he told Reuters as coffins were prepared for the bloated corpses. “Better to have died before them.”

The United States, a key backer of the island’s faltering peace bid, condemned the killing of 17 aid workers of a French charity.

Aid workers and diplomats say the reason for the murders of the 17 aid workers was unclear, but troops had been under days of strain in heavy fighting.

Most of the victims, 13 men and four women aged 23 to 54, were engineers specialised in water sanitation and agronomy as well as project managers, ACF said.

The staff had travelled to the eastern town of Muttur last Tuesday by ferry from Trincomalee, aiming to return the same day. That afternoon, a Tiger attack on a troop convoy in the harbour trapped them there. The next day the LTTE launched an offensive government troops in Muttur town and district.

“They said the LTTE came and told them to leave,” said Arulrajah, who believed the Tigers would not have killed the ethnic Tamil workers. “They said: We are leaving this place so you must also leave or we can do nothing to protect you.”

“They called on the phone and you could hear shelling,” Sinathambi Navaratnarajah, 52, who lost his son-in-law told Reuters. “They called ACF and were told to stay in the office.”

After three days of heavy fighting, the LTTE pulled out Friday.

By this time, Action Contre La Faim vehicles were trying to break through from the south, but could not get past columns of displaced Muslims and frequent mortar fire. The last radio transmission was recorded early on Friday morning, ACF says.

Most of the aid workers’ bodies had several bullet wounds, mainly to the head. The pathologist said they likely died later on Friday.

Outside the hospital in the Trincomalee, where the bodies of the aid workers arrived late on Monday night, relatives wailed while policemen covered their noses and mouths with scarves against the stench of death.

Tamil correspondents were not allowed to approach the site. Some said they were photographed by security forces who threatened to find and kill them if they reported on the massacre.

There has been strong international condemnation of the massacre. It was the highest toll of aid workers in a single incident since the 2003 bombing of the UN’s Baghdad headquarters which killed at least 24.

“We are deeply shocked by the spate of violent attacks on civilians and humanitarian aid personnel in Sri Lanka,” European Commissioner for External Relations Benita Ferrero-Waldner said in a statement, demanding an immediate investigation.

French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy condemned what he called “the appalling and cowardly murders.”

The French charity Action Contre la Faim (Action Against Hunger) said Monday it was suspending its mission to Sri Lanka after the killings.

“These humanitarian workers were clearly identified by their T-shirts as members of a non-governmental organization,” the group’s director, Benoît Miribel told AFP.

“We are appalled at what happened to the ACF staff,” said Yvonne Dunton, head of the ICRC’s sub-delegation in Trincomalee.

“This was a deliberate attack on a humanitarian organization that was doing valuable work for the people of Muttur.”

International truce monitors came under Sri Lankan artillery fire on Sunday as the prepared to open the Maavil Aru sluice gates in a deal clinched by Norwegian Envoy Jon-Hanssen Bauer.

The head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), Maj. Gen. Ulf Henricsson and another monitor, Ove Jansen, narrowly escaped with their lives.

They took cover in nearby LTTE trenches as dozens of Sri Lanka Army shells were fired at their location, even though Gen. Henricsson had met with the local SLA commanders to explain his purpose before proceeding to open sluice gates.

The SLMM slammed the Sri Lankan government’s attacks which tore up the deal brokered by Norway’s Special Envoy.

“(The government) have the information that the LTTE has made this offer,” Tommy Lekenmyr, chief of staff for the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) told Reuters.

“It is quite obvious they are not interested in water. They are interested in something else. We will blame this on the government.”

“The government’s response to the LTTE’s humanitarian gesture was fire,” he told Sri Lanka’s MTV channel.

Despite claiming that its offensive against the Liberation Tigers in Trincomalee was a ‘humanitarian mission’ to open a water channel blocked in LTTE controlled areas, Sri Lanka’s military this week stepped up and expanded its bombardment, even though the sluice gates were opened Monday.

In the heaviest bombardment of the past few weeks, Sri Lankan artillery hammered civilian areas in LTTE-controlled parts of Trincomalee, prompting tens of thousands of displaced Tamils to flee towards Vaharai to the south.

Fleeing refugees from Eachchilampathu and Muthur were caught in aerial attack and SLA artillery fire Wednesday when they were ferrying across the Verugal river to Vaharai division in Batticaloa district.

At least five people were killed and eighteen wounded in the most intense bombardment of the past three weeks of violence.

Sri Lankan forces manning checkpoints at Panichchankerni, the gateway to Vaharai from Batticaloa district are not allowing international and national non-governmental organizations (INGO and NGO) to take relief goods to Vaharai to be distributed among IDPs.

Sri Lankan troops, meanwhile, are massing in government-controlled areas to the west of the LTTE-controlled Sampur and Eachchilampathu areas. An offensive into the LTTE enclave in the Trincomalee district is widely expected.

The Liberation Tigers said the Sri Lankan government was ignoring the 2002 Ceasefire Agreement and that they would fiercely resist any Army ground offensive.

The international truce monitors said the fighting must stop immediately, but the Sri Lankan government insists its offensive will continue.

“[The governemnt’s] actions show that they want to go to war,” the head of the LTTE’s Peace Secretariat, Mr. Seevarathnam Puleedevan told AP from the LTTE’s northern headquarters.

According to latest reports received from Muthur east and Eachchilampathu division, people are seen wandering along roads in search of safe places to escape from artillery fire.

More than thirty thousand families have been internally displaced and majority of them are staying in jungles and under culverts through out the day to escape artillery attack which continues day and night.

Analysts say Sri Lanka has recently been seeking a suitable pretext to launch a ground offensive into the Sampur and Eachchilampathu areas and has seized on the Maavil Aru ‘water crisis’ which began when Tamil villages closed the sluice gates there in protest at government plans to build water towers in its controlled areas, but not in LTTE controlled areas.

On July 26, Sri Lanka launched air and artillery bombardment of LTTE-controlled areas around Maavil Aru in Trincomalee, claiming that a sluice gate closed by the LTTE had to be forced open, and then proceeded to launch a ground offensive.

Despite several days of intense shelling and heavy fighting, which added to the thirty thousand Tamils displaced by earlier bombardments, Sri Lankan troops failed to advance against Maavil Aru.

Meanwhile, the LTTE launched a limited counteroffensive against Muttur town to the north, which displaced tens of thousands of Muslims and Tamils in government-controlled areas.

The intervention of Norwegian Special Envoy Jon Hansen-Bauer last week secured a deal with the LTTE. But when international truce monitors went to open the sluice gates with LTTE officials, they came under Sri Lanka artillery fire.

“It is quite obvious they [the government] are not interested in water. They are interested in something else. We will blame this on the government,” Tommy Lekenmyr, chief of staff for the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), which oversees the island’s truce told Reuters.

“The government’s response to the LTTE’s humanitarian gesture [on Sunday] was fire,” he told Sri Lanka’s MTV channel.

This Monday the LTTE unilaterally opened the sluice gates, saying the move was in response to Norwegian appeals and intended to ease the humanitarian crisis.

Trincomalee District Political Head of the Tigers, S. Elilan, said “the LTTE, as agreed with the Norwegian facilitators, opened the sluice gate as a good-will gesture, amid heavy artillery firing by the Sri Lankan forces that were unable to reach the Maavilaru site.”

However Sri Lanka dismissed the move, claiming its forces had opened the sluice gates after advancing to their location.

Then the government also said it would not end its campaign until it controlled the sluice and a reservoir used for irrigation located in an area both sides claim as theirs. Truce monitors say the Tigers have de facto control.

“The Army say they have successfully reopened the sluice, and yet they still continue to attack. It doesn’t make sense,” said Thorfinnur Omarsson, spokesman for the SLMM. “It should be over.”

“Our concern is control of the water should be under the government,” said government defense spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella. “If it is under the terrorists, as and when they want they can open and close it.

“This is really putting the ceasefire in danger,” S. Puleedevan, head of the Tigers’ peace secretariat, said by telephone from the northern LTTE base of Kilinochchi.

“We have clearly mentioned that this is tantamount to a declaration of war if the Sri Lankan armed forces launch official attacks,” he added, saying the Tigers had no intention of giving up the sluice area.

Analysts say the Sri Lanka Army has been planning the offensive for months, if not a year. They cite the systematic destruction of infrastructure in the Sampur and Eachchilampathu areas over the past few months, along an embargo on cement and building materials which is now in its fifteenth month.

Apart from clamping a food and medicine embargo on LTTE controlled areas several months ago, the Sri Lankan military has deliberately sought to displace much of the population.

The displaced have been facing starvation due to the non-supply of food materials and urgent medical assistance. They are also facing a shortage of shelter as the tents supplied are not enough to put up temporary shelters for everyone.

There are no reliable death toll figures, as many areas in the Trincomalee conflict zone are still deemed too dangerous to enter because of landmines and booby traps, but dozens have been confirmed dead and aid workers fear the number could be far higher.

Over the past few weeks, bombing by the Sri Lanka Air Force has destroyed the road network and bridges in the LTTE controlled areas. School buildings, several civilian houses and other public buildings in the LTTE held areas have also been destroyed.

The infrastructure facilities of the Muthur east and Eachchilampathu have almost completely destroyed.

Ilankaithurai Muhathuwaram Bridge which connects the LTTE held Muttur east and Eachchilampathu division was badly damaged due to aerial bombardment, severing the land route between the two areas.

Since then the movement of civilians and vehicular transport have come to a standstill.

The supply of food and other relief assistance by local volunteer organizations in these areas has also been disrupted due to damage cause to the road network.

Most of the Tamil families in LTTE held Muthur east fled and sought refuge in Eachchilampathu division villages following Sri Lankan air, sea and artillery bombardment unleashed soon after the suicide bomb attack which wounded SLA Army Commander Sarath Fonseka on April 25.

Since then displacement of Tamil families has been compelled by regular bombardment.

The latest violence comes after 17 local staff from international aid group Action Contre La Faim were found shot dead in their office on Sunday in the eastern town of Muttur, the site of days of fierce fighting.

Some relatives of the dead - most of them Tamils - have blamed Sri Lankan troops for the killings.

Meanwhile, despite another appeal by Norwegian Special Envoy Jon Hansen-Bauer, the Tigers continue to insist that cease-fire monitors from European Union countries leave Sri Lanka. They made the demand after the EU officially labeled the LTTE a terrorist organization in May.

The 54-member observer mission would lose roughly two-thirds of its members, which they say would further undermine the cease-fire. But the Tigers say that countries which deem them terrorists cannot be part of a neutral monitoring mission.

As Sri Lanka slides deeper into a new chapter of a two-decade civil war, fresh peace talks are a distant prospect until either the Tamil Tigers or the military gain the upper hand, analysts say.

President Mahinda Rajapakse is a majority Sinhalese nationalist who refuses to compromise Sri Lanka’s territorial sovereignty - and who must juggle the demands of hardline Marxist and Buddhist monk political allies who hate the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

“I can’t see anyone getting back to peace talks until a clear change in the balance of power on the ground has been accepted, and likewise with the ceasefire,” said Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu of the Centre for Policy Alternatives, a private think-tank.

“It has now come to a situation in which the only interaction they can have is on the battlefield,” he added.

Peace broker Norway was quick to play down expectations from the new visit by special envoy Jon Hanssen-Bauer, who arrived last Friday to discuss the future of the island’s Nordic truce monitors.

“I don’t know what the hell Hanssen-Bauer is going to talk about,” Saravanamuttu said.

The government and the LTTE separately say they remain committed to a 2002 ceasefire, but truce monitors, diplomats and even some military officials say a war that has killed tens of thousands since 1983 has resumed to a greater or lesser degree.

Each side accuses the other of pulling out of the truce, and is keen to avoid blame for the collapse of the island’s protracted peace process.

“Now it has gone beyond the realm of a low intensity war,” said Iqbal Athas, an analyst for Jane’s Defence Weekly. “In my view, Eelam War IV has already started.”

“The confrontations are no longer isolated or focused on one particular area. Both in the north and east confrontations are widespread,” he added. “What is happening is no different to what happened during the other phases of the war.”

Athas saw the LTTE drive into government-held parts of the eastern Muslim town of Mutur, which has been flattened by artillery fire and whose tens of thousands of residents fled, as a plan to destabilise the east and choke the maritime supply route to the Jaffna.

Senior eastern LTTE political leader S. Elilan told Reuters in an interview this week the ceasefire was now null and void because of government air strikes on LTTE areas in a bid to settle a water supply dispute.

“The war is on and we are ready,” Elilan said. “The war has begun. It is the government which has started the war.”

“There are different definitions of war. And if you take the Stockholm Peace Research Institute, they say 500 killed in a year -- then there’s war,” said Major General Ulf Henricsson, head of the Nordic mission which oversees the truce.

“It’s still useful if the parties decide they want to talk, then you have the paper and you can go back to it. But just now we are far from a real ceasefire,” he added. “It still goes on, that low intensity war.”

Henricsson and mission staff from Sweden, Denmark and Finland is being pulled out by their governments after the Tigers gave members from European Union nations a Sept. 1 deadline to quit the island in light of a new EU terrorism ban against them.

That will cut the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission by two-thirds to just 20 people -- not enough to do the job properly. Analysts say it will leave a dangerous vacuum.

“I don’t think it is yet as bad as pre-2002, but it might develop into that,” said Sri Lanka’s military spokesman Major Upali Rajapakse.

Sri Lanka’s ordering in of war planes and artillery to open a minor irrigation canal blocked by the Tamil Tigers is an over-reaction and a sign hawks are calling the shots, analysts said last week.

Analysts said the real reasons for the fierce fighting could run deeper than the government’s explanation that it has launched a “humanitarian gesture” aimed at ending the Tamil Tiger blockade of the Maavilaru waterway.

“Water is the life blood and very important, but could this not have been settled through negotiations without sending war planes,” former Sri Lankan foreign secretary Nanda Godage asked.

“The question that is now being asked is if this does not signal the hawks taking over the defense establishment,” Godage said. “This could lead to a full conflagaration and this becoming a prestige battle.”

He said President Mahinda Rajapakse himself has been calling for peace and that the military action went contrary to his public stance, giving the impression that some hardline elements may be exerting influence.

“None of the parties are interested in talks at the moment,” the chief truce monitor Ulf Henricsson said. “They are both over-reacting.”

He does not expect either to formally abrogate the February 2002 truce and revert to full scale war, and instead believes the parties are more likely to return to negotiations after a bloody round of fighting.

Former airforce chief Harry Gunatillake said that latest military action underscored the “gung ho” attitude of the government that underestimated the damage guerrillas could inflict on the military.

“We are going into deep water here. The government may have tanks, ships and aircraft, but there are other factors in a guerrilla war,” Gunatillake said.

“This will be an intensified ‘localised’ battle, but it will not spread.”

Relations between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the government rapidly deteriorated with the election of Rajapakse last November.

The LTTE has officially described Rajapakse as a “pragmatic leader” but is wary of his main nationalist allies, the Buddhist monks and Marxists, who both oppose any power sharing deal with the rebels.

“The tough military line of the government is to appease the (Marxist) JVP,” Gunatillake said. “The president must tell the JVP to go to hell and start a process of negotiations.”

Troops began air strikes Wednesday July 26 and launched a ground offensive to open the waterway Monday July 31, with nearly 100 combatants killed so far on both sides.

“Very soon there will be more blood than water,” Gunatillake said. “The Tiger resistance shows that they don’t want the army coming into an area where they are in control. (The military action) is stupid. This is ridiculous.”

A diplomatic source close to the peace process said the military may have underestimated the rebel strength in the eastern province where the guerrillas suffered a split in March 2004.

“The government may have also wanted to show that the Tigers were weak in the eastern province,” the source said. “If the army fails to open the waterway, it will be a political setback.”

Escalation of violence in Sri Lanka has often been followed by a phase of negotiations.

There was a similar spurt in bloodshed before the two sides went to Switzerland in February for a face-to-face meeting.

Retired army brigadier general Vipul Boteju said the latest military action could bog down troops in hostile terrain and leave them exposed to guerrilla attacks.

“One thing is clear, neither side will say they are leaving the truce,” Boteju said. “The more they pledge to uphold the ceasefire, the more they will whack each other.”

Monitoring chief Henricsson said the ceasefire is barely holding, but all could agree that that there is too much violence, with at least 940 people killed since Rajapakse came to power.

Categorically rejecting the accusation by the Sri Lankan government that Liberation Tigers had abducted and killed Muslim civilians during the fighting in Muthur, the LTTE said Colombo was trying to divert attention from its military setbacks.

Amid reports Sri Lankan troops had shot dead fifteen aid workers in Muttur, the defence ministry in Colombo claimed that the Tigers had massacred at least 100 Muslim men whom they suspected had told security forces about the their movements.

But the Political Head of the LTTE, S. P. Thamilchelvan told reporters said that Sri Lanka’s accusation is a total fabrication and that Sri Lankan artillery had wiped out a group of Muslims and LTTE cadres investigating their identities.

“During the humanitarian crisis precipitated by the Muthur clashes, we were creating safe passages near Pachchanoor area for Muslim civilians to move out of the battle areas,” Mr. Thamilchelvan said.

“Our fighters identified and apprehended [Muslim] paramilitaries trying to infiltrate through the safe passages we created for civilians.

“While our fighters were interrogating some paramilitaries, the compound came under Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombardment. No one, including our cadres, emerged alive from that compound,” he said.

“Colombo is trying to twist this incident to claim a massacre was carried out by our cadres,” Mr. Thamilchelvan said.

“We have no compulsion to arrest Muslim youths. Our main mission [in Muttur] was against, and targeted towards, the occupation forces of Sri Lanka Government.”

Meanwhile, the LTTE denied claims that they had arrested 100 suspected Muslim paramilitaries.

“More than 100 innocent youths were detained by the LTTE while they were fleeing to safer places,” Rauf Hakeem leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), told reporters.

Residents who fled fighting in northeast Sri Lanka on foot accused both government troops and Tamil Tigers of beating and seizing civilians as they escaped - while each side accuses the other of massacres.

The first real ground fighting since a 2002 truce and the resulting mass population movement have shattered already strained relations between the Sinhalese, Tamil and Muslim communities.

“Every day, we are afraid,” said 62-year-old laborer Mari Thurajah, a minority Tamil from the mainly Muslim town of Mutur, most of whose population fled after heavy fighting. “In the past, all the people there were together, but now we cannot trust them.”
Fearing reprisals from Muslims, Thurajah and his family decided not to try and stay in the camps that now house the population of Mutur but instead pushed on to a Tamil school in Trincomalee, where hundreds now stay in the hope of getting aid.

A Tiger attack last week on the town of Mutur, north of a LTTE-held water supply the government is fighting to control, triggered the exodus of thousands of people, mainly Muslims but also minority Tamils and majority Sinhalese.

Access to the town is almost impossible, but the first aid group to arrive found the bodies of 15 mostly Tamil tsunami aid staff from a French charity who had been executed in their office -- most of them shot in the head. The Tigers and the army each blame the other (see separate story).

Many of the Tamils are said to have fled into areas controlled by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

LTTE areas have been heavily bombed and shelled and the Tigers said 15 civilians died on Sunday.

Others fled south with the column of Muslims, but say they were harassed and beaten by the Sri Lanka Army. Some are still missing. Witnesses told Reuters that local Muslims helped the military identify suspected LTTE sympathizers amongst the Tamils.

“They took the children from the fathers and then took some of the men away,” said 28-year-old mother Sathisawaran Thirumagal. “Some of them were let go but others were taken away in an army vehicle. We do not know what happened to them.”

The military say they were worried about Tigers infiltrating government territory mingled among the displaced people. Aid workers say most of the missing appear to be in police stations but some may have vanished.

Truce monitors said earlier in the year that troops were involved in extrajudicial killings of Tamil civilians. In Trincomalee, one Tamil woman said her son disappeared this weekend soon after they arrived in a temporary camp.

Muslims who fled Mutur tell similar stories, except they say their abductors and abusers were Tiger fighters. The army says it believes 100 Muslims were massacred - a charge the rebels deny (see separate story).

But with many people still unregistered and scattered, tracking who is actually missing may take days. There are reports of bodies lying off the main road south of Mutur but few have dared yet investigate due to ongoing violence.

And in a country where abuses on both sides have been reported frequently in two decades of war, some simply do not want to look too closely.

“It is a very cruel way of fighting,” said a Tamil priest. “But you do not want to be seen talking about it or something might happen to you.”

Tens of thousands of Muslim and Tamil people displaced by two weeks of violence in the eastern Trincomalee district remained crowded into makeshift refugee camps as Muttur town and parts of its environments remained sealed off by Sri Lankan troops Tuesday this week.

The Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO), the largest relief organisation in the Northeast, issued an urgent appeal to the international community.

TRO is currently caring for over 10,000 families displaced by the recent fighting and has been supplying food and water since August 1.

The TRO appealed to the Sri Lankan government, international monitors (SLMM) and the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) “to facilitate the transportation of relief to the affected areas.”

“Stockpiles of food are running low and TRO is appealing to the ICRC, Government of Sri Lanka, and the SLMM to facilitate the transportation of humanitarian relief to the displaced persons,” the organisation said.

About fifteen thousand Tamil people gathered in Killiveddy village along Muttur-Batticaloa road in government controlled area in the Muttur division Friday to seek safer places to escape from aerial strike and artillery fire now being conducted by the Sri Lankan armed forces.

18,000 Muslim and Sinhala refugees staying in 5 different schools in Kantalai, reports said.

The civilians have been staying in school buildings, temples and public buildings expecting transport facility to safer places with the facilitation of the International Committee of Red cross (ICRC).

Half of the men, women and children refugees were housed in schools and other buildings while the overflow huddled under trees and tents in Kantalai, AFP reported Saturday.

ICRC sources said that their officials were unable to reach Killiveddy to provide any assistance due to blockades in some places along the Kantalai-Allai road on Friday

A food convoy led by the ICRC Friday morning from Trincomalee town to Muttur to supply food to civilians was stopped at Kantalai by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) on Friday.

Registering so many people in such chaos is a slow process, but aid is beginning to get through, much from Muslim groups as well as international aid agencies that had previously been working on rebuilding after the 2004 tsunami, which also hit Mutur.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) says it is ready to feed 25,000 people.

“The problem is that the people are still scattered,” Mahbub Alam, head of WFP operations in north and east Sri Lanka told Reuters. “We also have not yet got the green light to go into Mutur for security reasons.”

Aman Salih from Jamiah-e-Islami said they expected more displaced families to come in the next few days as Norwegian peace envoys try to pull Sri Lanka’s warring parties back from the brink of all-out war.

He warned that unless aid agencies were allowed to bring in supplies, the situation could turn into a “a major humanitarian crisis.”

The Red Cross, which has so far been unable to reach Muttur and deliver vital relief supplies, is pressing the government for security guarantees.

“Our main problem now is food and how to get more organized as this crisis grows,” Salih said, as he tries to keep track of the number of families being housed in a school compound in Kantalai.

“We expect more, a lot more to arrive in the coming days because they are afraid to go home. The government has not given enough protection to these people so that they can go home,” he said.

“We left our house, everything in Muttur,” a displaced Muslim resident, B. M. Aliar told AFP as he begged for left-over curry for his wife and three young children. “We did not want to be killed. But we may starve here if no additional supplies arrive soon.”

6 August

A member of the LTTE’s Rural Force of Kovil Porathivu was killed when the LTTE confronted members of the elite Sri Lankan counter-insurgency forces, the Special Task Force (STF), attempting to infiltrate the LTTE’s Forward Defense Lines (FDL) in Paddiruppu, Batticaloa. The LTTE repulsed the attack by the STF. Sangarapillai Rajmohan, 18, died in the confrontation.

SLA soldiers at the 23-2 Brigade Headquarters in Valaichchenai Paper Factory launched artillery attacks on villages in LTTE controlled Vaharai area in Batticaloa district. The intense shelling which began at 7.00 p.m. continued till 9.00 p.m. Shells exploded in the paddy fields and in the jungle areas. Two civilians, including Rasa Saratha, a mother of five children, of Sallithivu, who lost her husband in the tsunami in December 2004, were injured in this attack.

Three persons from the same family in Koyilkudiyiruppu, between Panichchenkerny and Vakarai, were killed and four others were injured by artillery fire from the SLA.

One person was killed when an artillery shell fired by the SLA hit an ambulance bound for Trincomalee town from Muttur. The ambulance was badly damaged in the incident.

T. Partheepan, 24, an auto-rickshaw driver was shot dead by suspected Army-backed paramilitaries at Koolaavadi in Annaikoddai, Jaffna.

Kandiah Suthakaran, 33, a father of three and owner of a bicycle repair shop, was shot dead by motorbike riding armed persons at Kopay, Jaffna.

6 August

A newspaper distributor’s shop located in a High Security Zone (HSZ) in Batticaloa town was completely burnt down deliberately. Muruges and Son Stores, which is on the Batticaloa Central Road, was 75 meters from an STF camp. Batticaloa residents allege the shop was burnt by paramilitaries working in collaboration with the SLA. Earlier paramilitary cadres in Batticaloa had warned paper distributors to stop distributing two mainstream papers, Sudar Oli and Thinakkural, in SLA controlled areas. However, Batticaloa Police said an electrical short caused the fire.

The Sudar Oli and Thinakkural, Tamil dailies printed and published in Colombo, are taken to the Batticaloa distributor every day by a passenger carrying private bus that plies daily between Colombo and Batticaloa. Paramilitaries collaborating with the SLA have threatened the owner of the bus not to deliver Sudaroli and Thinakural newspapers to Muruges and Son Stores, alleging they are pro-LTTE.

S. Sriskandarajah, 35, and a father of three, abducted by suspected SLA soldiers Friday evening from his tailor shop located in front of the Kantalai police station was found dead Saturday morning in a paddy field with hands tied and gunshot wounds.

Five men who attempted to infiltrate from LTTE controlled area into Jaffna district through the SLA defence lines near Muhamalai were shot dead by the SLA. The Defense Ministry in Colombo said troops shot dead five LTTE cadres.

Thiagarajah Rathumilan, 30, from Uduvil Road, Manipay was shot dead at his house, located near the Uduvil SLA camp.

Arumugam Uthayasooriyan, 43, a driver attached to the local Pradeshya Sabah, from Thambachetti in Vadamaradchy was killed and his body discovered near Pandariyamman Temple in Thambachetti.

Gunmen riding a motorbike shot and killed Mr. T. Mayuran, 30, inside a business establishment on Sea View Road, Trincomalee. Two men whose faced were covered with black cloths and shot Mayuran in his head at the counter of the business establishment at point blank range before escaping. Mayuran is the son of Mr. K. Thurairajah, a leading businessman in Trincomalee town.

One SLA soldier was killed in a fight between the SLA and LTTE at Parapankandal, Mannar district. He was identified as Sergeant Serath Mudiansalage Sisira Premlal, 39, of Avissawella. Murunkan Police said the fight broke out when LTTE cadres attempted to enter SLA held territory through the SLA FDL.

4 August

A Tamil businessman in Kiliveddy, Muttur, was shot and killed, allegedly by the SLA, as he closed his business and approached the main road. The victim, Kaththamuthu Perinaparasa, 65, had been a leading businessmen in the village.

An SLA sergeant on guard duty at the Vavunativu SLA Camp, M. Jayantha, 35, was injured in a skirmish between the soldiers and LTTE cadres. The SLA claimed LTTE fighters had attacked the camp from a nearby LTTE FDL. P. Thayamohan, the LTTE Political Head for Batticaloa District, said that cadres manning the LTTE FDL retaliated against an SLA artillery attack and gunfire towards LTTE controlled area.

A well-known literary figure and General Manager of People’s Bank, KKS Branch, was shot at point blank range allegedly by the Intelligence operatives of the SLA at Thirunelvely, Jaffna. Pon. Ganeshamoorthy, 56, killed when he was getting ready to go to work from his residence. Most of the banks in Jaffna were closed and bank employees took to the roads in protest of the killing. They gathered in front of People’s Bank Jaffna Branch office and marched through the town centre, carrying placards and shouting slogans.

A sentry in Poonthoddam, Vavuniya was hit by gunfire. A police reinforcement team that arrived soon after was hit by a claymore blast, injuring four. The body of a youth was found along with a grenade and a claymore in a nearby paddy field when the police searched the area later in the morning.

3 August

S. Jayakumar, 40, and Thuraisingam Rameshkumar, 22, who were arrested following an attack against SLA soldiers in Chunnakam, Jaffna, on Wednesday, were in fact innocent civilians, their legal team claimed. The two men appeared before Mallakam Magistrates Court Thursday bearing serious wounds.

The magistrate, ordering a full medical report on their condition, remanded the two men in custody until 16 August. According to their legal representatives, Jeyakumar was a bystander who got hurt when he fell on the ground to take cover to avoid being hit by SLA fire. Rameshkumar, who was near the incident on his motorcycle, was asked by SLA soldiers to take Jeyakumar to his home in Ellalai.

Both civilians were later arrested at the Mallakam checkpoint as they travelled on KKS Road towards Mallakam. The men involved in the attack against the soldiers were in a white van, which had been hijacked from its civilian owner and was subsequently recovered abandoned in Sandilipay.

The entire student body of Hartley College, Point Pedro, Jaffna, boycotted classes protesting the abduction of a senior student. Jegatheswaran Gajendran, 18, a Grade-12 student of the school located inside a HSZ, was abducted the previous Sunday and has not been seen since. The students called for urgent action from the Sri Lanka Government to secure the immediate release of Gajendran, who is alleged to have been kidnapped by unidentified men in a white van.

Unidentified assailants lobbed explosives, suspected to be dynamite, at the house of Mr. Ignatius, a driver employed by the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) in Mannar. Diluxan, son of Mr. Ignatius, was injured in the explosion and the rear portion of the house was damaged.

The SLA fired artillery from Thallady and Uyilankulam camps towards Parappankandal, southeast of Mannar town, after two SLA troopers were wounded in a claymore attack. SLA troopers exchanged gunfire with the ambushers and launched mortar and artillery fire, during which one civilian was wounded. More than 100 families from SLA controlled areas moved into LTTE controlled territories following the indiscriminate fire.

2 August

Sri Lankan troops in Seruvila opened fire on a Muttur hospital ambulance as it was transferring patients to Trincomalee general hospital. Two Tamil civilians were killed on the spot and the driver, who was critically wounded in the shooting, succumbed to injuries while being taken to Colombo. Sri Lankan Police on Thursday said the ambulance was caught up in “cross-fire.” The three civilians killed in the incident were identified as Mr. Ravi, Muttur magistrate’s clerk, Ms Amutha, a school teacher and Mr. Arjunan, the driver of the Ambulance and husband of Ms Amutha. The ambulance was transporting civilians injured in artillery fire that hit the Muttur St. Antony’s Church, Wednesday morning. In this incident an eight-year-old boy, Aravinthan, died in the church. (Muttur fighting reports p4, p8 and p9).

A young man was shot dead by motorbike riding gunmen in front of ‘Namthu Eelanadu’ news paper office at Navalar Road, Jaffna. The victim was identified as Pathmanathan Besmananthan, 29, a musician, of Perumal Kovilady in Jaffna.

A SLA soldier was killed and another injured in a claymore mine attack on troops engaged road clearing operation in Periyaneelansenai, Mannar. Following the explosion, unidentified men in lying ambush fired at the soldiers. The body of the dead soldier, Meegedera Pushpakumara Ariaysena, 23, of Matale, was handed to the hospital for post-mortem examination. The injured soldier, Dhamikka, 23, was first admitted to hospital.

Unidentified men shot and killed a police constable when he was returning from a shop to report for duty at a sentry point located in the heart of Pesalai, Mannar. The dead constable was identified as S. M. Mahinda, 41, of Minuwangoda. The Police fired back but no one was injured.

A Sri Lankan Police Sergeant Gunatilaka, 40, was seriously injured when unidentified men fired at a group of policemen at Semmantivu in Murunkan, Mannar.

1 August

A SLA soldier was injured when unidentified men fired at a group of soldiers engaged in road patrol in the area close Santhipuram Hundred Housing Scheme at South Bar in Mannar town. The soldiers returned fire but no one was injured. The injured soldier, Rohan Sri, 23, was first admitted to hospital.

Gunmen shot and killed an 18-year-old internally displaced Tamil boy, when he was driving a land master tractor along Akkaraipattu Sagamam Road. Gnanasegaram Mohathasan was a resident of Akkaraipattu and staying in a welfare centre for internally displaced located in Ramakrishna Mission School in the area.

31 July

The SLN launched heavy gunfire from gunboats off the northeastern coast in Vadamaradchi East and the SLA fired artillery shells towards the LTTE’s Nagarkovil FDL. An exchange of mortar fire between the SLA and the LTTE FDL forces was reported for 45 minutes following the artillery and SLN attack.

Siruppiddi petrol station owner, Visvalingam Kauroopan, 24, from Karanavai, missing since the previous day, was found slain with his throat cut and his headless body dumped in the disused Siruppiddi Kannaki Amman Temple festival pool. Kauroopan left his petrol station for lunch Sunday and went missing. His relatives registered complaints with the Jaffna Human Rights Commission (HRC) that SLA troopers were responsible for his killing. Relatives told HRC members that Kauroopan was last seen being detained at the nearby Siruppiddy Army sentry post. They told the HRC that Kauroopan had recently passed information to army higher officials on an incident of attempted rape of a young girl by SLA troopers, and that they believed that this was a revenge killing.

A SLA soldier was injured in a claymore blast between Irupalai and Kopay on the Pt. Pedro Road, Jaffna.

A youth riding a motorcycle along Kathirippai Road in Atchchuveli was shot dead by gunmen.

An SLA lieutenant and a soldier were injured in a claymore explosion at Vanchiankulam village, Mannar. The injured were members of a group of SLA soldiers engaged in road clearing operation in the area between Naruvalikulam and Nanattan. The claymore mine was hidden in a bush along the road.

A blast was reported at the SLA’s armoury in Kalutara, south of Colombo. SLA spokesman, Brig. Prasad Samarasinghe said that the fire brigade has doused the fire.

Nineteen SLA soldiers were killed in a blast at Serunuwara, between Kantalai-Allai, in Trincomalee. Eighteen SLA troopers were killed on the spot and one later succumbed to injuries hospital. A bus carrying soldiers from the Kallaru SLA camp was ambushed by a mine placed along the road. (See Trincomalee fighting reports p1-3).

A Sinhalese man, Lakshman Susantha, 32, an owner of a three-wheeler and a resident of Palaiyootu was shot dead at Love Lane, Trincomalee, as he was standing in front of the office of Ceylon Electricity Board office. Susantha was married to a Tamil woman.

Another Sinhalese man, Liyanage, 22, was shot dead when he stopped his lorry near a church at Chelvanayagapuram, Trincomalee. His employer, a third Sinhalese, was also in the lorry when the incident took place.

Unidentified men shot dead a Tamil youth, Kaliyuganathan Geethansan, 22, at Abeyapura, Trincomalee. Men on motorbike called him out of the house and shot him in the head.

A Sri Lankan Policeman was shot and killed in Vavuniya by gunmen riding a three-wheeler while he was riding a bicycle.

30 July

Gunmen waiting in ambush shot dead a youth in Urumpirai, Jaffna. C. Kapilraj, 18, was walking along Sivakula Lane towards a friend’s house 200 meters from his residence when gunmen hiding behind overgrown shrubs fired and escaped.

A SLA trooper was seriously injured in a grenade attack by unknown assailants at the sentry in front of Vavuniya Madhya Maha Vidiyalayam. SLA soldiers cordoned off the area and conducted search following the attack.

29 July

A Sri Lankan Police Sergeant and two young men were injured in two separate grenade blasts in Vavuniya, Saturday evening, police in the northern town said. A Sri Lanka Police sergeant and a civilian passer-by were injured in a grenade attack at Kulumaddu junction, Vavuniya. Gunfire was heard in the are for nearly 20 minutes.

A young man was injured in a blast at Pandarikulam, Vavuniya.

An unknown gunman walked into a liquor bar located on Horawapatana Road in Vavuniya and shot dead an employee inside the bar. Immanuel Eugene Dias, 43, was seriously injured, and died while being transported to hospital. The gunman escaped the crime scene after the shooting.

Three SLA soldiers were seriously injured when unknown gunmen riding in a motorbike hurled hand grenades in a SLA sentry near Velayutham Maha Vidiyalayam in Point Pedro, Jaffna. Some civilians were injured when the SLA troops fired indiscriminately in retaliation after the attack.

A trader was cut to death at his home, 50 meters from a SLA sentry post, in Nachimarkovilady, Jaffna town. Sivasubramanium Vigneswaran, 36, from Paalaavodai in Karinagar and owner of a shop in Nachimarkovilady, was found on his bed with his throat cut.

Three SLA soldiers were injured in a grenade attack in Kodikamam town. Two other grenade attacks on SLA troops were reported in Urelu and Thirunelvely.

A SLA soldier was injured by sniper fire near the SLA’s FDL near Muhamalai.

A Sri Lankan police constable was injured when unidentified persons fired at a sentry post located between Valaichchenai bus terminal and the office of the Assistant Superintendent of Police in Batticaloa district. The injured policeman, Ratnayake, 35, was admitted to hospital. The attacker fled when the policemen opened up with retaliatory fire.

Two Sri Lankan Police Constables and a civilian were wounded in a grenade attack in Kaluwanchikudy, Batticaloa. Unidentified youth riding a bicycle lobbed a grenade at policemen who had come to a tailoring shop in the town. The wounded policemen, S. W. Jayaratne, 36, and M. Gunadasa, 33 and the shop owner S.Rasaratnam, 36 were rushed to hospital.

SLA soldiers on patrol recovered a claymore mine fixed to a tree along Siththandy Road in Eravur, Batticaloa district. The claymore was later defused by an SLA bomb disposal squad. The claymore mine had been placed targeting the truck transporting soldiers from Batticaloa to Pollonaruwa.

A 50-year old man was killed in Muttur east when SLA soldiers fired from Kaddaiparichchan camp. The soldiers in the main Kaddaiparichchan camp, located on the border of the LTTE and SLA controlled territories fired towards LTTE held Kaddaiparichchan village. Kanagasabai Navaratnam was in his compound in Amman Nagar, in the LTTE held Muttur east, when he was hit by a bullet and died on the spot.

28 July

Two persons travelling in a three-wheeler from SLA-controlled territory were killed when explosives in their vehicle exploded at the gateway to LTTE held Monkeykattu area in Vavunathivu, Batticaloa district. The three-wheeler was destroyed in the explosion. “It was a big explosion. We suspect it targeted our FDL position,” LTTE Batticaloa District Political Head Daya Mohan said. The three-wheeler exploded when it reached the first LTTE FDL in Monkeykattu. The victims were suspected to be persons who had been abducted by the Sri Lankan troopers and their paramilitaries. A man was seen leaving the three-wheeler and running towards the SLA FDL seconds before the three-wheeler exploded. However, LTTE sources did not rule out the possibility of the victims being members of a paramilitary group, who were carrying explosives into the LTTE controlled territory.

Jeyapalan Rajendran, 36, a Police Constable who was abducted from near Mandanai Refugee Camp, Batticaloa, Thursday afternoon, was found the following morning, shot. Rajendran, who lived in Vinayagapuram, was abducted by gunmen a short distance from a police station as he was going to work on his motorbike. The gunmen too him to a secluded area behind the Mandanai camp, shot him at short range and escaped after leaving his body near the camp. He died on his way to hospital.

The body of a young man was found with gun shot injuries at Thaandavanveli Junction, Batticaloa. The victim was identified as Vimalathasan Thevaroopan, 26, from School Road, Naipattymunai, Kalmunai.

A Savukadi resident, Subramaniyam Krishnamoorthy, 28, was abducted by armed men travelling in a white-van at a playground in Savukadi, a hamlet of Thalavi in Eravur. The abductors took his motorcycle with them. Mr, Krishnamoorthy was about to leave the playground after playing soccer when he was abducted. White-van abductions, widespread within the military controlled areas in the north and east, are carried out by SLA soldiers and collaborating paramilitaries, and the majority of the abductees are killed after torture and interrogation, residents allege.

In Sithandi, Batticaloa, unknown gunmen hijacked a car without passengers after forcing the driver to drive to a back street and tying him up to a tree.

Unidentified persons lobbed a grenade at the residence of Mr. Mohamed Sally Mohamed Subair, Divisional Education Officer. His house is located in Ottamavadi in Valaichchenai police division.

Three homeguards, riding a motorbike, were killed in a claymore ambush on Vavuniya Kebitigollawe Road. The men were returning home after duty in a single motorbike when they were hit by the explosion. They were identified as G. Sunil Gunawardena, Saman Kumara Dissanayake and Bandage Thillakartna. Home Guards are drawn mostly from Sinhala villages close to the Tamil border in the northern and eastern parts of Sri Lanka. Officially known as Home Guards Service, the unit was formed in 1984 as a supplementary force to assist Sri Lanka’s military and police forces. They are trained, armed and deployed under the direct supervision of the SLA.

A grenade exploded at the Vavuniya office of the paramilitary Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP). It was not confirmed if it was an attack or a bomb went off accidentally. No damage was caused to the office and o casualties were reported.

The body of Thiyagalingam Senthan, 16, a student from Karainagar who was reported missing by his parents since 24th July, was found with gunshot wounds near his residence in the Jaffna islet. A handgun, about 50 unused rounds, and a waist belt were found near his body. After detecting a foul odour, local residents discovered the body about 100 meters from Senthan’s residence in a desolate area behind an abandoned house. Recently a complaint had been filed with the Jaffna District Human Rights Commission that Senthan, brandishing a hand gun, had threatened to kill a local girl. The girl’s parents said in their complaint that although they had registered their complaint with Kayts Police and the SLN, no action was taken. As the area where the killing took place is within a HSZ, some speculate that the youth was collaborating with the SLN

Gunmen riding a motorbike shot dead a youth along Kasturiar Road in the centre of Jaffna town. Packiyarajah Visvakanthan, 32, was standing near the liquor store in front of Rajah Theater when he was shot. A large number of SLA soldiers, brought to the area soon after the killing, cordoned off the area around Jaffna town and conducted search, but no-one was arrested.

A SLA soldier and a civilian passer-by were injured in a grenade blast at Thaddatheru Junction, on KKS road in Jaffna. The wounded civilian was identified as K. Sivanandan, 49, of Arasady Road.

Two policemen were shot dead by unidentified men at Poompuhar in Palaiyootu, Trincomalee. They were identified as Sergeant Sarath and Constable Jesurajah. Both were rushed to Trincomalee general hospital immediately after the attack but later succumbed to injuries.

27 July

Dvora Fast Attack Crafts of the SLN attacked fishing vessels Thursday early morning off the LTTE controlled Mullaithivu coast. One fisherman, a tsunami survivor, narrowly escaped, but lost his Don Bosco gifted boat and nets. The fishermen, who had gone fishing in 10 boats at 3:30 a.m. were attacked by the SLN Fast Attack Crafts (FACs) around 6:30 a.m. The boats managed to reach the shore before the Dvora gunboats approached the site, according to fishermen who escaped from the attack. Soosaipillai Thevathas, 51, father of one from Manalkudiyiruppu, narrowly escaped from the attack that damaged his boat. Mullaithivu Fisheries Society representative Mariyathas said the fisherman’s boat was 120 000 rupees worth and the fishermen had lost fishing nets worth 300 000 rupees.

A policeman and a civilian passer-by were injured when unidentified men lobbed a grenade at the police party in front of the public library building in Mannar town centre. The injured police constable, R. M. Pushpakumara, 26, and the female civilian, J. Tharshini, 20, were admitted to hospital.

A SLA soldier was killed in a claymore explosion targeted at the SLA road clearing patrol along Jaffna-Kankesanthurai Road. Five civilians were injured when SLA troopers opened fire indiscriminately following the explosion. Two civilians, P. Balasubramanium, 55, and S. Krishnakumar, 50, were admitted to Jaffna Teaching Hospital with gun shot injuries. K. Thayaparan, 23, and S. Punniyamaniyam, 47, both of Kalapoomi, Karainagar, and R. Ravindran 24, of Ketpeli, Mirusuvil, were also injured.

Mariathas Manojanraj, 23, a distributor of Yarl Thinakural and Veerakesari, was killed in a claymore explosion on Rasa Road, on his way from Atchuvely to Jaffna town. Manojanraj was riding motorbike to collect issues of the papers from the Jaffna Thinakkural office for distribution in Atchuvely when the explosion occurred. The claymore mine was triggered by remote-control device and occurred in an isolated area in Navakeeri close to the Ellalan Community Centre. Manojanraj and a fellow worker had registered with the SLA sentry in Atchuvely prior to their journey to Jaffna. Relatives of Manojanraj said they suspect SLA complicity in the explosion.

Unidentified men riding a motorbike shot dead a former president of the Fisheries Society in Pt. Pedro at his home in Supparmadam, Jaffna. The incident occurred about 100 metres from Sri Lanka Army’s 52-4 Brigade Camp. Kandaiah Sithravadivel, 59, was an active contributor to development of Fisheries Societies in Pt. Pedro.

26 July

A Tamil civilian was shot dead by unidentified men at Chinabay, Trincomalee. M. Sivakumar, 34, father of two, was shot dead at his home.

A lorry belonging to Madhu Multi-Purpose Co-operative Society (MPCS) was attacked by a claymore mine, allegedly placed by a SLA DPU, inside the LTTE held Panichchankulam, Mannar district. The lorry was transporting huller and other related materials from Aandankulam to a rice mill under construction at Sinnavalayankaddu with the financial support of the UNDP at that time of incident. The driver of the lorry Sahayanathan Lambert, 44, father of four, and cleaner of the lorry, Annasamy Sebastiampillai, 48, sustained injuries.

Ramasamy Jeyakody,40, an employee at the Vavuniya Urban Council was shot dead at Vepankulam, Vavuniya, by unidentified men.

Another youth was shot and seriously injured at Katkuli, a suburb of Vavuniya town, and was admitted to Vavuniya Hospital.

A SLA soldier was killed and another was injured in an attack at Kokkuveli in Thandikkulam, Vavuniya.

Further west, a policeman, Constable, Joseph Fernando, 40, was injured in a grenade attack at a sentry post at Kattukaraikulam Reservoir along Mannar-Uyilankulam road.

25 July

Unidentified men riding a motorbike shot and killed a youth at Punnalaikadduvan South, Jaffna. Two others were seriously injured in the shooting, which occurred while the three were talking to each other at the Aayatkadai Hospital Road. Local residents blamed the paramilitary operatives collaborating with the SLA for the shooting. They said SLA soldiers had been searching for the three youths and that the three had been assaulted by SLA forces earlier. The young man killed in the incident was identified as Sriskandarajah Lavan, 24, of Punnalaikkadduvan. The injured were identified as Murukaiah Sivanandan, 31, and Kathriththamby Murukesan, 27.

The two civilians were killed when SLA troopers began firing indiscriminately for more than 5 minutes following a hand grenade attack on soldiers patrolling the Jaffna Palaly Road near Urumpirai. One soldier had been seriously wounded in the attack.

Contrary to claims by Sri Lanka Military sources that the SLA had shot two LTTE cadres, investigations conducted at the scene revealed that the two men killed were innocent civilians who had been riding in separate motorcycles in opposite directions. The men have been identified as Balasingam Sujendran, 34, of Mallakam and Kanesh Selvakumar, 27, of Alaveddi.

Two policemen were injured in a claymore blast at Aadiyapatham road in Nallur, Jaffna. The bomb was fixed to a parked bicycle. The police team from Kopay police station was on a regular route clearing mission from Kalviyankadu towards Thirunelvely when they were attacked.

Two Sri Lankan Policemen were injured in a grenade attack at a sentry post at Goodshed Road in Vavuniya.

The funeral of cadres of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and a civilian rural force member killed in a Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) airstrike on the LTTE’s Thenaham Conference Centre in Karadiyanaru, Batticaloa district, was held last Sunday.

The eight had been killed, and another four wounded, on Saturday when the SLAF dropped 12 bombs on the centre in three rounds, completely destroying the LTTE’s flagship political centre in the Batticaloa district.

Batticaloa Head of Tamileelam War Hero’s Affairs, Thamilchelvan mama and Batticaloa Coordinator of Village Development Scheme Ariharan were among the dead. The LTTE officials had been having a preparatory meeting ahead of a public event planned for that Saturday.

LTTE Commanders Col. Banu and Col. Jeyam were present at Thandiyadi Heroes Cemeteray where five were buried with military honours.

Sri Lankan news reports claimed however that Col. Banu had been seriously wounded in the killing and the forty LTTE cadres had been killed.

The bodies of Lt. Col. Thamilchelvan Mama, Major Ariharan, Major Kavi, 2nd Lt. Mathusuthan and Rural Forces member Logithan were taken to Ambilanthurai where hundreds of peoples and LTTE cadres paid their last respects. The bodies were then taken in procession towards Thandiyadi Heroes Cemetery.

The cortege of the other three LTTE members, Captain Anali Chenchudar, Captain Uravan, and 2nd Lt. Mathusuthan were taken to Pulipaynthakal for last respects and were buried with military honours at Tharavai Heroes Cemetary. Hundreds of people took part in the funeral processions.

Thenaham was initially the LTTE’s headquarters in Batticaloa district. Later, it was made into a guest house and was being used as Conference Centre by the Tigers.

Foreign diplomats and Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) officials were usually received by the Tigers at Thenaham.