Terrorism & Security
A daily summary of global reports on security issues.
Sri Lanka says cease-fire with Tamil Tigers now over
The Sri Lankan government announced its withdrawal from the five-year-old cease-fire with the Tamil Tigers Wednesday. The Norwegian-brokered 2002 truce treaty was ignored by both sides, but analysts say the formal withdrawal would open the door to even greater violence.
The Guardian reports that the Sri Lankan government opted to officially abandon the cease-fire on Wednesday, following the latest spate of violence between Colombo and the independence-seeking rebels of the Tamil Tigers, formally known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
The agreement was signed in February 2002 by Ranil Wickremesinghe, who was prime minister at the time, and Velupillai Prabhakaran, the Tamil Tigers' reclusive leader - but it has been in tatters for the past two years. Anura Yapa, the cabinet spokesman and media minister, said: "Today it was proposed to the cabinet by the honourable prime minister that the ceasefire is no longer valid and it's time to withdraw from the ceasefire agreement. All the ministers agreed to the proposal."
The Tamil Tigers have been fighting for an independent homeland for the Tamil minority in northern and eastern Sri Lanka since the 1980s. The rebels have been designated a terrorist organization by several nations, including the US, Britain, and the European Union.
The Associated Press reports that on Thursday, Mr. Yapa left the door open to future peace talks, provided the Tigers disarm first. But, he said it was "useless talking to them now," as fighting between the Tigers and the government raged even during the cease-fire.
The withdrawal is mainly symbolic, signifying the end of an agreement once hailed as a harbinger for peace. It most likely means the end of a Norwegian monitoring mission that was one of the few independent observers to the war in the jungles of Sri Lanka's north. Ending the accord was a "serious step," the Norwegian international development minister and key mediator, Erik Solheim, said on the website of Norway's foreign ministry. "This comes on top of the increasingly frequent and brutal acts of violence perpetrated by both parties, and I am deeply concerned that the violence and hostilities will now escalate even further," Solheim said.
Experts reacted to the government's withdrawal from the cease-fire saying it heralds a heightened level of bloodshed, reports Reuters.
"This means all-out war," said Iqbal Athas, an analyst with Jane's Defence Weekly in Colombo. "The government has dropped the peace option and has opted for a fuller military onslaught on the rebels. "One thing is certain, there'll be more confrontations. There'll be more violence now," he added. "The government perceives it to be end-game ... It will be the most intense period of war Sri Lanka has seen."
Even before the announcement of the cease-fire withdrawal, the government showed signs of wanting to launch a new offensive against the Tigers, according to an Agence France-Presse report. Over the last weekend, state-run newspapers in Sri Lanka had quoted officials promising a military victory over the rebels in 2008, the AFP said.
"We can bring the war against the LTTE to a turning point once we are able to destroy the LTTE capabilities to operate in bunkers and forward defence lines," [Army chief Sarath] Fonseka was quoted as saying in the [state-run] Daily News.
The paper also quoted both navy chief Wasantha Karannagoda and air force commander Roshan Gunatilleke as saying they were "confident" of defeating the Tigers in the new year.
On Saturday, Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa – brother of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa - drew attention to the number of truce violations, reports Indian daily The Hindu. "The Ceasefire Agreement exists only on paper. Obviously we can see that there is no ceasefire. It has become a joke," he said.
From the beginning of the truce in 2002 until April 2007, the Tamil Tigers violated the cease-fire 3,830 times, while the government violated it 351 times, according to figures cited by The Hindu.
India may help the Sri Lankan government fight the Tigers. United Press International reports that India, citing an increased "threat perception" of the Tigers, announced plans Wednesday for joint military exercises with Sri Lankan forces in early 2008.
Sri Lanka's military believes it is gaining the upper hand in the conflict, but the withdrawal decision may also be politically motivated, reports Agence France-Presse.
Analysts said the government of President Mahinda Rajapakse, which has a slim majority in parliament, may also have pulled out of the truce to woo the hardline but influential People's Liberation Front, or the JVP. The JVP saved the government from a humiliating defeat at the December budget vote and has been demanding the abrogation of the ceasefire and an end to Norway's role on the troubled island. Press reports here speculated that the end of the truce could pave the way for the JVP to rejoin the government it left in 2005.
The government's decision to leave the treaty comes amid a new spate of violence in the capital city of Colombo, reports CNN. The government accused the Tigers of planting a bomb that hit an Army bus Wednesday, killing at least four and wounding 28 others. A day earlier, a member of a Tamil opposition party was killed by a gunman outside a Hindu temple.
String of suicide bombings in Iraq
Two suicide attacks in Iraq, including the deadliest to hit Baghdad since August, killed at least 56 people and wounded at least 42 on Tuesday and Wednesday. The attacks came days after the US military delivered an upbeat report on security in the country, reporting that levels of violence had dropped over the past year.
A female suicide bomber attacked a checkpoint of neighbourhood patrol volunteers Wednesday morning in Baquba, the capital of Diyala province, reports Reuters. The attack killed 10 and wounded eight, police said.
It was the latest in a wave of suicide bomb attacks that has appeared to intensify in recent days and weeks, even as overall levels of violence in Iraq have fallen.
Two policemen and four patrol volunteers were among the dead, police said. Among those killed was Abdul-Rafaa al-Nidawi, whom police described as the coordinator between U.S. forces and the volunteer patrols in the city.
The attack was on one of many "mainly Sunni Arab neighborhood patrols, paid by US forces to oppose Al Qaeda fighters, [which] have frequently been targeted in recent months," reports Al Jazeera.
On Tuesday, a suicide bombing killed 36 and wounded at least 35 others in Baghdad's Zayouna neighborhood, reports The Washington Post. The attack, described as the deadliest in months in Iraq's capital, occurred just as many residents "are saying they feel more secure and express hope that the worst is behind them."
The target Tuesday was a crowd that had gathered to mourn Nabil al-Azzawi, a victim of a car bombing four days before. A teacher, he was one of at least seven people killed Friday at the crowded intersection at Tayaran Square, according to neighbors and an Iraqi official.
The Azzawis are a Sunni Muslim family, neighbors said, with relatives in Diyala province, where some of Iraq's worst violence has occurred. On Tuesday, the family was hosting the third and final day of the funeral service outdoors in a private garden. The property belonged to Mr. Azzawi's brother, and was located in a Zayouna enclave known as Officer's City, a relatively peaceful part of eastern Baghdad.
An Iraqi army spokesman, Brig. Gen. Qasim Ata' Zahil, blamed the attack on the Diyala network of the Sunni insurgent group Al Qaeda in Iraq. Authorities here nearly always blame suicide bombings on the group, because the tactic is not generally used by other militant groups.
Police put the suicide attack's toll to 36, making it the most fatal Baghdad bombing since the summer, reports the Associated Press.
The suicide bombing was one in a string of attacks Tuesday, reports The New York Times, including one on a police patrol in the same Baghdad neighborhood. At least 40 people were killed across Iraq "just hours after revelers celebrated the new year in public places for the first time in years."
The Zayuna blast was unusual not only for its heavy toll but also for its location: a neighborhood that has a large Iraqi military and police presence with many checkpoints and barriers intended to prevent attackers from entering to the area. An Iraqi military base is also near the site of the bombing, a mixed area of Shiites and Sunnis.
Many of Tuesday's victims were relatives attending the funeral, reports the Los Angeles Times.
Mohanad Saleh, who owns a travel and transport company in the capital's middle-class neighborhood of Zayouna near the site of the blast, described the scene as "horrifying."
... "It's a terrible thing to happen to mourners who were already experiencing grief due to the loss of their loved one," Saleh said. "Now they face this terrorism. It's a very agonizing thing to start the first day of the year with."
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki issued New Year's Day greetings the same day on Al Iraqiya television, calling the conclusion of 2007 an "end of triumphs and success," and saying the new year will be one of reconstruction and economic development," the L.A. Times reported.
The bombings came days after the top American military commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, gave a positive if cautious assessment of the security situation in the country. Gen. Petraeus said Saturday that violent attacks in Iraq had "fallen by 60 percent in June, but cautioned that security gains were 'tenuous' and 'fragile,' requiring political and economic progress to cement them," The New York Times reported.
Speaking to reporters in an end-of-year briefing at the American Embassy in Baghdad, General Petraeus said that coalition-force casualties were down "substantially," and that civilian casualties had fallen "dramatically."
"The level of attacks for about the last 11 weeks or so has been one not seen consistently since the late spring and summer of 2005," he said.
... He also credited the Iraqis' own "surge" of more than 100,000 soldiers and police officers, the rejection of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia by the Sunni awakening movement in former insurgent strongholds, and the cease-fire by the Mahdi Army, a Shiite militia loyal to the cleric Moktada al-Sadr, although he said some "splinter elements" continued to operate.
The data presented, compiled from both US and Iraqi records, "showed a sharp fall in civilian deaths from their peak between mid-2006 and mid-2007, the rate of decline appeared to level off in the past two months," reports The New York Times.
In related news, the Iraqi government "took a small step towards national reconciliation by sending a draft amnesty bill to the parliament speaker," reports Al Jazeera.
Previous
Become part of the Monitor community