Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels make a daily change to the note at the top of their Web site. Yesterday, it read that the cease-fire agreement "enters into 1,410 days today."
What many Sri Lankans are asking, though, is when will the updates stop -- and the cease-fire end?
In a surge of violence, 45 soldiers were killed and 71 wounded in ambushes last month blamed on the rebels. Government troops have killed seven suspected rebels. The two sides have traded accusations about the slaying of a pro-rebel lawmaker at midnight Mass on Christmas Eve.
Residents of this island nation worry the tit-for-tat killings could become all-out war.
"Very definitely, there are indications" of a return to war, retired Air Marshall Harry Goonetilleke said.
The two-decade war between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LITE) and the Sri Lankan military ended with a 2002 truce after 65,000 deaths, 1.6 million people displaced and large parts of northern and eastern Sri Lanka under Tiger rule.
But following six rounds of peace talks, negotiations ended in April 2004. An uneasy peace has held ever since.
The most recent talks failed over the rebel demand for autonomy, which the government believed could be a major step toward dividing the nation of 19 million into one state for majority Sinhalese and another for the minority Tamils. President Mahinda Rajapakse won Nov. 17 elections on a pledge that he would never allow the country to be divided.
The Tigers have already created a de facto state in the island's north and east, home to most of the country's 3.2 million Tamils, complete with their own military, judicial system and even traffic police.
Suddenly, though, many observers are worrying that the Tigers, with the spate of attacks on government forces, may be trying to begin the fight again.
"The LTTE appears intent on forcing a war upon the government" said Jehan Perera, an independent political analyst. "The LTTE is making it evident that it is prepared for war."
In the most recent incident, five Tamil civilians believed to be working for the rebels were killed on Monday in the port city of Trincomalee when grenades they were carrying exploded before they could throw them at a troop convoy, military spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe said.
The rebels may want war now because they may be ready for it, while the government is not.
"The LTTE has tons of money and in the past three years they have regrouped and rearmed with [the] latest weapons smuggled in," Goonetilleke said.
During the past three years, three rebel ships have been stopped or chased away trying to unload arms.
The rebels have held back from war, at least in part, because of their wish for recognition as a political movement. Many countries, including the US and India, now call them terrorists.
"The LTTE's strong desire for international recognition is a factor that needs to be built into any government strategy" for talks, Perera said.
The rebels have denied any involvement in recent killings and say they are ready for talks. They accuse the government of trying to isolate them from the international community.
However, the careful planning and execution of recent attacks make the Tigers the main suspects, given their expertise.
The rebels are considered a formidable military machine. They recruit boys as young as 13 and make members wear cyanide capsules around their necks so they can commit suicide if captured. They run training camps comprising 3.000 to 4,000 fighters.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese