A renegade Tamil rebel commander has pulled thousands of fighters back to defend his fortified base in eastern Sri Lanka after the main rebel faction advanced against him with heavy mortar and gun fire, a military official and witnesses said yesterday.
The dissident faction vowed to "stand firm," regroup and resume its defense.
Fighting on Friday between the Tamil Tiger rebel factions, which killed at least 10 rebels and wounded 20, was the worst since a 2002 truce halted the country's 19-year civil war, and has threatened the nation's fragile peace.
The Ministry of Defense said yesterday that the offensive by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam was a violation of the ceasefire.
Breakaway commander Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan, also known as Karuna, recalled 2,000 of his roughly 6,000 fighters to his Thoppigala base to set up defenses, a military official said on condition of anonymity.
Thoppigala is a jungle area in Batticaloa, 220km east of Colombo.
To reach Thoppigala, the main faction would have to cross through fortified government-held areas, thereby endangering the ceasefire, the official said.
The Norway-brokered ceasefire pact bars the rebels from entering government-held areas. Any attempt to carry weapons through government territory could provoke a military response, the official warned. The closest government territory is just 10km from Thoppigala, he said.
Following the breakaway rebels' withdrawal, the Verugal River area, the scene of Friday's fighting, was calm and people were moving about as usual.
Still, people feared the stability they have enjoyed for the last two years was beginning to crumble.
"We are very afraid that if fighting breaks out ... that may start the war all over again, and business will be very much affected," said Sanjeewa Jayatillaka, who sells pencils and pens.
Muralitharan's spokesman, Varathan, said at least 300 of their fighters had been "taken prisoner" by the main rebel faction.
The military warned that both sides had planted remotely detonated Claymore mines on trees, bushes and bridges.
After hours of mortar and machine-gun fire Friday, about 500 fighters from the breakaway group withdrew from the area, claiming they were repositioning, not retreating, to prevent civilian casualties.
"We will decide on our future military action shortly," Varathan said. "Let everyone know that we are standing firm and we have men and firepower to stand any attack by the Wanni group."
Wanni is the northern territory where the main rebel group has its headquarters.
The two sides had been squared off at the river since Muralitharan announced the schism on March 3 in a dispute over regional rivalry and political strategy.
For two decades, the Tamil Tigers fought government troops in a bloody separatist conflict which has claimed 65,000 lives.
Amid fears that the peace process could be doomed if government troops are drawn into the fighting, President Chandrika Kumaratunga ordered her commanders to help evacuate rebel casualties from both sides, but not to interfere in their conflict, an official in her office said.
"We don't want to get dragged into this," Defense Secretary Ciril Herath said after an emergency meeting with European ceasefire monitors in Colombo.
The army positioned men along the roadways in the region and along the sea cliff to prevent any landing by the mainstream Tigers at Panichachankani, where refugees were being cared for by the international relief organizations UNICEF and OXFAM.
On April 2, a political alliance led by Kumaratunga, who has taken a tough line on the rebels, won the most seats in parliamentary elections, defeating the party led by former prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who initiated the most recent round of peace efforts.
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