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| Sri Lanka |
| Sri Lankan jets bomb Tiger camp |
| 2007-05-08 |
| Sri Lanka’s air force bombed a Tamil Tiger training camp near the rebels’ northern stronghold on Monday, officials said, as the government vowed to put national security before a tattered truce with the insurgents. The military said air force jets pounded the site south of the Tigers’ de facto capital of Kilinochchi in the island’s far north, but had no details on any casualties. The Tigers were not immediately available for comment. Defence spokesman and minister Keheliya Rambukwella said the government would breach the terms of a 2002 ceasefire - which has broken down on the ground but still technically holds on paper - if necessary to safeguard national security. He said the government had also asked mediator Norway to re-examine the truce pact to see if it should be axed. Officials have long argued it conceded too much to the Tigers and many privately say it should be abandoned. “(The ceasefire) has been violated over 10,000 times. As far as we are concerned national security is utmost, and we will not compromise with national security,” Rambukwella told a media briefing. While committed to the truce, the government reserved the right to act as needed for security, even if that resulted in further violations, he added. Rambukwella said the air force would step up spy plane flights over rebel territory, which are truce violations in themselves. Both the government and the Tigers have repeatedly ignored international community calls to halt a new chapter in the island’s two-decade civil war, and Rambukwella’s comments come after Britain last week withheld millions of dollars in aid citing human rights and defence spending concerns. Domestic flights were restricted and amphibious aircraft were banned from using irrigation reservoirs following Tamil Tiger air attacks, officials said Monday. The military banned Sri Lanka’s national carrier, Sri Lankan Airlines, from operating a lucrative domestic service of Single Otter aircraft using reservoirs for take-off and landing, a defence ministry official said. The move was part of measures taken by the security forces to deal with the new threat of air attacks by Tamil Tiger rebels who demonstrated their air capability in March by using light aircraft to bomb targets here. Foreign tourists were using the air-taxi service to travel to a golf course and upmarket hill resorts, instead of travelling on the highly congested local roads. |
| Posted by:Fred |