SRI LANKA: EU bans Sri Lanka's rebel Tamil Tigers as 12 more civilians are massacred by the rebels.

Record ID: 662499

  • Title: SRI LANKA: EU bans Sri Lanka's rebel Tamil Tigers as 12 more civilians are massacred by the rebels.
  • Date: 31st May 2006
  • Summary: (BN11) WALIKANDA, SRI LANKA (MAY 30, 2006) (REUTERS) WIDE SHOT MASSACRE SITE / VILLAGERS LOOKING ON; SOLDIER LOOKING AT BODIES; CLOSE UP OF BODIES SRI LANKA MONITORING MISSION OFFICIALS; BODIES WITH SOLDIERS IN THE BACKGROUND; BODIES BEING CARRIED ONTO A TRUCK; TRUCK LEAVES WITH THE BODIES
  • Embargoed: 15th June 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Sri Lanka
  • Country: Sri Lanka
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVAAKN5CMJOYTERPT17R3UCFYBLY
  • Story Text: Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels warned on Tuesday (May 30) that a European Union ban that diplomats say will freeze their assets would shake the island's teetering peace process, but said they remained committed to a truce.
    The 25-nation bloc listed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as a banned terrorist organisation on Monday (May 29), a move that came after a sharp escalation of attacks and clashes with Sri Lanka's military.
    The Tigers had earlier said proscription would deter them from returning to talks aimed at permanently halting a two-decade civil war and would "exacerbate the conditions of war".
    But they now want the EU to sanction the government, which they accuse of helping a band of former comrades to attack them.
    The ban is a diplomatic slap in the face for the rebels, who have sought to project an image abroad as viable leaders of a de facto state they want recognised as a separate homeland for ethnic Tamils in the island's north and east.
    The United States, Britain, Canada and India have already outlawed the Tigers.
    More than 290 soldiers, police, civilians and rebels have been killed in a rash of attacks, from suicide bombings to naval clashes, since February in what the truce monitors and Tigers now call a "low intensity war".
    Police said that, in the latest burst of violence, suspected Tigers shot dead 12 majority Sinhalese labourers in the restive east on Monday (May 29). The rebels denied any involvement.
    The labourers were abducted from a military-controlled area and taken to a rebel-held zone. This is the second massacre of majority Sinhalese civilians this month.
    Piyadasa Wijeratna, one of only two survivors who was recovering in hospital from gunshot wounds, said he was among those attacked.
    "We went to work as usual around 10 am. The LTTE came and took us away, tied our hands and shot us. There were 14 of us. At that time I thought all the others were dead.I raised my head after about ten minutes. They shot me again.That shot hit my leg.After a while they had left. I then untied myself and crawled back."
    Many ordinary Sri Lankans already displaced by years of war fear a return to a full-scale conflict that killed more than 64,000 people before the ceasefire. END
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