The Sri Lankan government yesterday rejected a call for a separate truce with a new Tamil Tiger faction that broke away from the main guerrilla group, giving Lanka's fragile peace process one of its toughest challenge since a 2002 cease-fire.
The Tigers' eastern commander pulled his 6,000 fighters away from the 15,000-strong army in a unprecedented dispute with the northern-based top leader over his demands that the eastern region send recruits to the north.
The breakaway commander, Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan, also known as Karuna, approached the government Thursday for a truce apart from the one the Tigers signed with the government in February 2002.
But a top Defense Ministry official said yesterday the government rejected the idea.
"We cannot enter into an agreement with another group when the government already has an agreement with the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTT)," Defense Secretary Ciril Herath said. "We have no such idea at the moment ... we have to watch the situation."
On Thursday, Muralitharan said his grievances with top rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran also included allegations that the Tigers' northern cadres are favored over eastern cadres for positions in the group's administrative wing.
"The peace process has entered the greatest period of uncertainty because of the unexpected and major destabilization of the LTT," said Jehan Perera, a top political analyst of the National Peace Council, an independent think tank.
Norway-brokered peace talks between the government and the rebels have been stalled since last April for various reasons, the latest a power struggle between Sri Lanka's president and prime minister.
However, any hopes of a revival have now been thrown into limbo with this unprecedented split in the rebel organization.
Muralitharan said he had not yet decided if he wanted to participate at peace negotiations as a separate group.
"It's only after having discussions with Norway that we will be able to disclose our future role," he said.
The rebel leader had been one of the four rebel negotiators at peace talks held in Bangkok, Norway, Berlin and Japan since September 2002.
"It's important to have good dialogue with Norway. I strongly hope that we can have a good settlement for people in the east through means of negotiations," he said, dressed in military fatigues and seated under a Kubuk tree.
Prabhakaran signed the 2002 cease-fire with Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, halting a 19-year civil war that killed nearly 65,000 people.
"The defense ministry has responded in a cautious and responsible way, strictly adhering to the spirit of the existing cease-fire agreement," said Jehan Perera, a top political analyst, about the ministry's response.
Muralitharan said his group will respect the existing truce until it can sign a new one.
Any move to sign a separate pact with a breakaway group is likely to anger the main rebel movement and threaten the island's fragile cease-fire.
The split is the biggest blow to the rebel group since it began its insurrection in 1983. Prabhakaran is previously known to have ruthlessly crushed any dissension or challenges to his leadership.
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