Colombo not ready for peace talks - rebels

Colombo: A Tamil Tiger leader accused the Sri Lankan government on Tuesday of denying international mediators access to the rebels and said Colombo was not ready for peace talks.

The government rejected the rebels' claim.

Seevaratnam Puleedevan, secretary-general of the rebels' Peace Secretariat, said in a telephone interview that 20,000 civilians had been displaced in the government's latest offensive against the Tiger's northern stronghold.

Sri Lanka's 25-year civil war reignited in 2006, dealing a blow to tourism and deterring some investors, and fighting has intensified since the government annulled a 6-year-old Norwegian-brokered truce in January.

"Sri Lanka armed forces are losing a lot of soldiers ... many more (losses) will come if they inch into LTTE territory," said Puleedevan, referring to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam who are fighting for an independent state in the north and east.

Nordic ceasefire monitors quit the country this year after the ragged truce disintegrated, and Puleedevan was pessimistic about the chances of renewed peace efforts

He accuses the government of refusing to let Norwegian facilitators meet the rebels.

"We have to first discuss with the facilitators. We want to know what is their thinking. The Sri Lankan government is not ready for that, that's the problem," he said.

Responsibility claimed

A little known Sri Lankan rebel group claimed responsibility on Tuesday for recent bomb attacks on transport vehicles as revenge for what it said were government attacks and aerial bombings on innocent Tamil civilians.

The military has blamed Tamil Tiger rebels for a series of train and bus blasts in capital Colombo and central Sri Lanka in which at least 32 people were killed and over 100 wounded.

"We want to claim that we are responsible for the bomb attacks on the transport vehicles and other attacks," Ellalan Force, which the military says is a Tiger-linked group, said in an e-mail.

The attacks have been carried out as a "stern reply" to the government forces' Long Range Reconnaissance Petrol (LRRP) attack and aerial bombing of innocent civilians, the Ellalan Force said in the e-mail.

"The LRRP attacks and the aerial bombings on Tamil innocent civilians must stop. The Sinhalese must understand [the] situation clearly and think about why the "Ellalan Force" continue their attacks."