Sri Lanka Fighting Kills 100, Displaces Thousands, UN Says
    By Bill Varner
    Bloomberg

    Wednesday 26 April 2006

    Fighting in Sri Lanka during the past two days has killed at least 100 people and driven thousands from their homes, the United Nations said after the Indian Ocean nation's military bombed Tamil Tiger positions again today.

    Sri Lanka's air force and navy fired missiles at rebel-held areas in Muttur following a suicide attack yesterday in Colombo that wounded the army commander, and Tamil Tiger attacks on the navy. The rebels told international truce monitors to ask the government whether it has begun a "full-scale war" on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, according to their Web site.

    "The UN and other aid agencies are still able to cater to the needs of the people, but their activities are being disrupted by the insecurity," Stephanie Bunker, spokeswoman for the UN's emergency relief office, said. She said the 100 deaths included 60 civilians.

    The LTTE said the bodies of at least 12 Tamil civilians, including women and children, were recovered in Trincomalee following yesterday's retaliatory strikes, according to TamilNet. Daya Master, the group's spokesman, denied the army's claim that rebel forces started the fighting.

    Violence has escalated since the government and the Tamil Tiger rebels held their first meeting in three years in February and agreed to enforce their 2002 cease-fire. Talks scheduled for this month in Geneva have been postponed twice.

    Norwegian envoy Erik Solheim was quoted by Agence France-Presse as saying that efforts were under way to try to end the violence and get both sides back to peace talks.

    The rebels say Tamils are discriminated against by Sri Lanka's mostly Buddhist Sinhalese majority. Tamils make up less than a fifth of the population of 20 million. The island's two- decade civil war killed more than 60,000 people.

    Sri Lanka's benchmark stock index today fell to a two-month low, and bond yields rose.