The government of Sri Lanka Tuesday accused the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE - known as the Tamil Tigers) of "ethnic cleansing," after the rebel group shut a sluice gate, depriving 50,000 people, mainly ethnic Sinhalese and Muslims, of any water.

Reuters reports that the government says the move is designed to drive the farmers off their land in the northeast of the island nation.

"I would definitely call it ethnic cleansing," head of the government peace secretariat Palitha Kohona told Reuters in his Colombo office. "Water is critical to human existance [sic]. Our objective is to secure the water and we will get it."

The ethnic Tamil rebels expelled thousands of Muslims from the northern Jaffna peninsula in the 1990s. Most of the northeastern farmers had stayed on in the area in the hope of the water supply returning, Kohona said, and the government would distribute food supplies to them.

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The rebels say that the move is in retaliation for the government's failure to build water-towers in rebel-controlled territory as part of the cease-fire agreement. Reuters also reported that "hardline Buddhist monks," who hate the Tigers and are intensely loyal to the Sri Lankan president, are also trying to reach the gate to open it for the farmers.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reports that a top Tamil accused the Sri Lankan government of reigniting the war and called the four-year cease-fire "null and void." At least 18 government soldiers and 35 rebels died in fighting on Monday.

Meanwhile, the international monitoring mission [who are monitoring the cease-fire] was dealt a major blow as Denmark and Finland declared they were pulling out their people because the Tigers have refused to guarantee safety for their ceasefire monitors. Along with Sweden, the countries supply two-thirds of the 60 monitors in the country.

The rebels are fighting for a separate Tamil homeland in the north and east and pulled out of peace talks in 2003. There have been intermittent battles since then that have killed more than 800 people.

The Tigers had demanded on Sept. 1, 2005, that the monitors from the European Union states Sweden, Finland, and Denmark leave the country after the EU labeled the LTTE a terrorist group. The Associated Press reports that months of clashes between government forces and the rebels have "battered the fragile 2002 cease-fire, which was meant to end two decades of fighting that claimed the lives of about 65,000 people."

AFXNews reports that the Tamil Tigers launched a heavy mortar attack against Sri Lanka's main naval facility in the northeastern port of Trincomalee. At least eighteen mortar rounds hit the facility. The Associated Press reports that eight soldiers were killed in the attack. A navy spokesman, however, denied the report and said sailors destroyed three rebel attack boats.

The Independent reports, however, that the government "appears to be taking advantage of the fact that the world media's attention is focused on Lebanon to carry out its offensive almost unnoticed." The ground office began Monday after four days of "almost unreported" aerial attacks on Tiger positions.

"In reality, there is no ceasefire but on paper it is still there," said the head of a Nordic ceasefire monitoring mission, retired Swedish general Ulf Henriccson. "At the moment none of the parties are interested in talks ... a full-scale war will be a disaster."

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• A turning point in Qana (Der Spiegel)
• Olmert urged to call for Qana inquiry (Ynetnews)

Feedback appreciated. E-mail Tom Regan.