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Sri Lanka government ends ceasefire

Police and security forces went on alert across Sri Lanka yesterday after the government announced it was pulling out of a tattered ceasefire with Tamil Tiger rebels, officials said.

The already tight security in Colombo was further strengthened one day after suspected Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels set off a roadside bomb targeting an army bus that killed five and wounded 28.

Two Sri Lankan government soldiers were killed and three wounded in another fragmentation mine attack in the north-central part of the island yesterday, police said.

"We have raised an alert, especially in Colombo -- we have deployed more men," a senior police officer said.

The government announced late on Wednesday that it was formally withdrawing from the Norwegian-brokered 2002 truce after months of escalating violence and a belief it now had the upper hand in the decades-old conflict.

Government spokesman and media minister Anura Yapa said that the government viewed the 2002 truce agreement as a "flawed document."

"The government does not want to be a party to a non-functioning ceasefire agreement," Yapa told reporters. "But it does not imply that the government has shut the door for negotiations."

He said that if the Tamil rebels were to lay down their arms -- an unlikely event -- the government could resume talks facilitated by Norway which broke down in October 2006.

Sri Lankan military chiefs have said this year will be a turning point in the war and have vowed to eject the rebels from their mini-state in the tropical island's northern jungles.

Under the ceasefire that went into effect from Feb. 23, 2002, both the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tigers had the option to pull out after giving two weeks' written notice to the Norwegian foreign minister.

Colombo's withdrawal will lead to the collapse of the Norwegian-led Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission (SLMM), which recorded violations and provided the only independent account of violence in the troubled regions.

Norway's International Development Minister Erik Solheim, an architect of the 2002 truce, expressed his concern over the possibility of a slide back into all-out war.

"I regret that the government is taking this serious step," Solheim said in a statement.

"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," he said.

There was no immediate reaction from the Tigers -- although LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran had already said in November that the peace process was a waste of time.

The truce had initially halted the daily death toll reported from the island, but both sides have been drifting back into all-out war since the collapse of talks more than a year ago.

The defense ministry said the government had also decided to formally end any negotiations with the rebels, who want to carve out an independent Tamil state in the north and east of the ethnic Sinhalese-majority island.

"The government sees no point in having any attempt to come to a settlement with a terrorist outfit," the ministry said, quoting spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella.

Analysts said the government of Sri Lankan 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.
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