Fighting spreads in Lanka, onus on India now

"The whole nation is facing grave crisis as regards national security," the President said and urged all employees to donate money to help finance troops currently engaged in heavy fighting in the north.

Reports from Trincomalee said an LTTE suicide bomber exploded herself while attempting to assassinate the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) leader M K Gunawardene at Kantale in Trincomalee district this evening. Gunawardene, a former Member of Parliament however escaped with minor injuries.

Even as troops were engaged in hand-to-hand battle in Jaffna, the fighting has now been spread to Chammani, southeast of Jaffna town, a government statement said.

This brought the battle virtually close to the door step of the town, where still several thousands of civilians lived. Eight militants were reportedly killed in the fighting near Chammani, it said.

Last night the Government has claimed that over 150 rebels were killed at Sarasalai east of Chavakachcheri.

Meanwhile in New Delhi, the Cabinet Committee on Security, which met here this morning to discuss the situation in Sri Lanka, is meeting again later in the day resulting in the cancellation of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s visit to Bhopal scheduled for today.

Vajpayee chaired the meeting of the committee which reviewed the situation in Sri Lanka. It was decided to have another meeting of the committee in the evening.

However, External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh said in Tehran that India is not going to enter into a "fire-fight" in Sri Lanka while offering humanitarian assistance.

"India is not going to enter into a fire-fight on Sri Lankan soil if and when it finally has to engage in humanitarian assistance", Singh said when asked about reports that the Indian Navy was on a 72-hour alert and ready to assist in evacuating Sri Lankan troops trapped in the Jaffna peninsula in case Colombo called for such help.

Singh told reporters that so far there had been no formal request from Sri Lanka to India’s offer for humanitarian assistance.

Earlier in Colombo, Norwegian Deputy Foreign Minister Raymond Johansen, trying to broker peace in the conflict, met the Indian High Commissioner here last night after declaring that India has an important role to play in bringing peace in the island nation.

Though there was no official word on the meeting Johansen had with Shivshanker Menon, informed sources said the Norwegian Foreign Minister gave details of the discussions he had with Sri Lankan leaders.

The high-level Norwegian delegation, which also comprises Norway’s special envoy Erik Solheim, yesterday met Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga, Foreign Minister L Kadirgamar and opposition leader Ranil Wickramasinghe.

Johansen told reporters after meeting with Wickramasinghe that Norway considers as "very important" India’s role in finding a political solution to the ongoing ethnic conflict.

Sri Lankan Government officials are also expected to brief the Indian High Commissioner separately in this regard.

In another development, ten Sri Lankan moderate Tamil parties have appealed to both the Sri Lankan Government and the LTTE to immediately agree for a cease-fire and begin negotiations under the aegis of Indian and Norwegian mediation to reach a political settlement.

The ten parties which included the Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) urged the two sides to immediately agree for a ceasefire in view of colossal amount of damage to life and property of the over half a million peoples currently living in Jaffna peninsula.

The Tamil parties called on both Norway and India to ensure that a political solution satisfying the aspirations of the Tamil community was found.

The signatories included leaders of the All Ceylon Tamil Congress, Democratic Workers Congress, Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front, People Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam, Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation and up-country Peoples Front.

The former Chief Minister of Sri Lanka’s North-East Provincial Council Varadarajah Perumal, who has recently returned to Colombo after nine years of self-imposed exile in India, has appealed to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to take measures to bring about a temporary ceasefire and ensure the safety of thousands of civilians whose lives could be endangered if the LTTE recaptures Jaffna.

He claimed that hundreds of members of moderate Tamil democratic parties who have difference of opinion with the LTTE’s policies and practices currently living in Jaffna would either be "massacred or imprisoned in concentration camps", if the rebel group returned to rule in Jaffna.

He alleged that during 1986, the LTTE has banned all the Tamil parties and massacred hundreds of their cadre. Also the LTTE turned its ire again on the moderate Tamil parties immediately after the departure of the Indian Peace-Keeping Force (IPKF) in 1990 during which several hundred suporters of the Tamil parties were killed by the rebel group, he further alleged.