70 Tigers killed as Norway tries to broker peace

Over 70 rebels were killed in fierce fighting with the troops at Sirasali about five km east of Chavakacheri, Government spokesman Arya Rubasinghe said.

Heavy hand-to-hand fighting raged in Chavakachechri, about 15 kms north of Jaffna during the weekend, an official statement said.

Rubasinghe said the army has offered to hand ove 50 rebels’ bodies to the LTTE through the International Committee of Red Cross. This was the first time that LTTE suffered such major loss after it launched its new offensive to re-capture Jaffna since May 10.

The statement said the guerrillas attacked Chavakachechri defences twice since last night, which were repulsed by the troops. Army also responded by mounting air and artillery attacks on rebel concentrations at Thanakilappu section south of Jaffna town.

Countering LTTE claims that the rebels were relentlessly firing artillery shells at Palaly airbase and Kankesanthurai Port, the government’s only suply routes for the peninsula, it said that Sri Lankan navy and the airforce continued to ferry supplies for the troops and the civilians.

As the soldiers and the rebels fought for control of Jaffna, Norwegian Deputy Foreign Minister Raymond Johansen met President Chandrika Kumaratunga, Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar and the main opposition United National Party (UNP) leader Ranil Wickramasinghe to find a solution to the crisis.

Johansen is accompanied by Norway’s special envoy to Sri Lanka Erik Solheim.

Though the Norwegian officials maintained that their visit was a familiarisation exercise, official sources here said the issue of declaring a ceasefire by both sides to save the lives of over half a million civilians in the war-ravaged area figured in the talks.

Meanwhile, ICRC said it has failed to obtain permission from both the government and the LTTE to take a ship from eastern Trincomalee to Kankesanthurai to evacuate patients.

In another related development, the Government censors ordered the closure of pro-opposition weekly newspaper The Sunday Leader and it Sinhala publication Perumuna for "repeatedly violating" the exisiting censorship regulations.

The government had earlier closed a Tamil newsapaper in Jaffna Uthayan on similar ground.