Sri Lanka stops bombardment, but war fears remain

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka ceased bombing Tamil Tiger targets and reopened crossing points to rebel territory, the military said on Thursday, but it did not rule out more attacks as the island teetered on the brink of war.   

Media reports quoting LTTE sources said 40,000 civilians have fled from  northeastern part of the island nation to escape airstrikes launched by Sri Lankan military.
 
Both sides have vowed to retaliate if attacked again after heavy firing Tuesday night and Wednesday caused thousands to flee their homes and raised fears a 2002 ceasefire could collapse.   

If violence halts, diplomats say peace talks might still be possible.   The air strikes on Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) territory in the northeast followed a suspected Tiger suicide bomb attack that killed 10 and wounded the army's commander.   

Army spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe said there had been no new military action overnight, but that an army camp near rebel territory in the northeast had been fired on with small arms, while a mine blast in the northwest wounded two police personnel.   

“It was suspected LTTE. But for a claymore mine blast we don't respond with air strikes,” he said.   

The pro-rebel Web site Tamilnet (www.tamilnet.com) quoted Tiger northeastern political chief S. Elilan as saying the rebels awaited instructions from their leadership, but any retaliation would be “catastrophically disabling and devastating.”   

The Tigers say more than 12 civilians were killed in the government air and artillery strikes on their territory around the northeastern port of Trincomalee.

They also say some 40,000 people have fled their homes.   Aid workers say that figure is probably high, but the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said it believed thousands had been displaced.   

Military experts said the air force lacked the capability for precision strikes and civilians were likely to have been hit.   

DANGEROUS TIMES AHEAD:   The International Committee of the Red Cross said it hoped to get security guarantees from both sides so it could move in.   

In the northern army-held but Tamil-dominated Jaffna enclave, a Reuters reporter said residents were hoarding food.   

With the main supply road from the south into Jaffna cut off during the fighting, a shortage of fuel was hitting public transport and electricity supplies.

The army said the road and the border through rebel territory reopened early Thursday and government officials said fuel was being sent.   

Diplomats said the international community -- including giant neighbour India -- had wanted the bombing halted to allow aid shipments but warned the situation was still volatile.   

“Even if they have stopped, the door is still open for many dangerous moments ahead,” said a Western diplomat.   

Some say the Tigers, whose two-decade fight for a Tamil homeland in the north and east has killed more than 64,000 people on both sides, feel they have not achieved enough from peace and are looking for a reason to restart the conflict.   

Others they are angry the government has done nothing to rein in renegade ex-rebels, the Karuna group, who Nordic truce monitors say have been operating from government territory and attacking the mainstream rebels.   

The reason the rebels gave for pulling out of peace talks in Geneva is more mundane still -- a dispute over the transport of eastern rebel leaders to a pre-talks meeting.

Mediator Norway and the truce monitors are still trying to overcome that hurdle.  The Tigers said the bombing and killings of Tamil civilians amounted to “attempted genocide” and called for the international community to condemn and stop the attacks.   

“The terror atmosphere that has been created throughout the Tamil homeland has shattered the Tamil people,” said a statement on their official Web site.

“Today, Tamil people are seeking and expecting protection from our movement,” it said.