Sri Lanka, Tigers trade blame over fighting in truce

By C. Bryson Hull

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka and the Tamil Tiger rebels traded blame on Tuesday over combat during a two-day holiday fighting pause, which the separatist rebels said fell short of the full ceasefire they are demanding.

With more than 50,000 soldiers surrounding a 17-square km (7 sq mile) no-fire zone where the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) are holding tens of thousands of civilians, President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Sunday ordered troops into a defensive stance for the next two days.

Those days coincide with New Year celebrations by Sri Lanka's Sinhalese and Tamil populations, and Rajapaksa urged the Tigers to surrender and free the people they are keeping as human shields in the face of an imminent conventional defeat.

The LTTE Peace Secretariat, in an e-mailed statement, said Rajapaksa's call was "merely an act of hoodwinking".

"We consider this ceasefire announcement of (the) Sri Lanka government as a two-day holiday opportunity availed to its servicemen," it said. "The Sinhala Forces are continuing to target the civilian population with their bombs and guns."

The Defence Ministry said soldiers had "strictly observed the humanitarian pause" while the Tigers on Monday had fired machineguns throughout the day, and occasionally artillery. One soldier was killed by sniper fire, it said.

The United Nations and rights groups have accused the government of shelling civilian areas. The government says this is Tiger propaganda designed to create international pressure for a truce.

Thousands of Tamils in the diaspora have protested en masse for a ceasefire in cities around the world, but that has done little except infuriate Colombo -- especially after protesters in Oslo broke into the Sri Lankan embassy and trashed it.