Guerrillas attack navy camp in northern Sri Lanka<\/p>\n
COLOMBO (Agencies): Tamil Tiger rebels attacked a northern
\nnavy camp on Tuesday in a lightning advance to retake their
\nformer capital of Jaffna as pressure grew on the government to
\nseek military help from neighboring India and the United States.<\/p>\n
The rebels, who had overrun the key Pallai military base over
\nthe weekend, unleashed an intense artillery barrage on the navy
\ncamp in a strategy to control the sea supply route, military
\nofficials and rebel sources said.<\/p>\n
The Defense Ministry in Colombo said the soldiers were
\ndefending the camp barely 25 kilometers south of Jaffna.<\/p>\n
President Chandrika Kumaratunga held a crisis meeting with her
\nmain political opponent here on Tuesday as Tamil Tiger guerrillas
\nescalated attacks in the northern peninsula of Jaffna.<\/p>\n
Opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe said he held an hour-
\nlong meeting with Kumaratunga, who is also the commander-in-chief
\nof the armed forces, as heavy fighting raged near another coastal
\nbase in the peninsula.<\/p>\n
\"The President briefed us on what is going on in Jaffna,\"
\nWickremesinghe said shortly after his meeting. \"The President
\ntold us the situation is critical.\"<\/p>\n
He said they did not discuss the possibility of Sri Lanka
\nseeking foreign assistance in the face of the rebel advance in
\nthe peninsula which government forces had wrested control from
\nthe Tiger rebels in December 1995.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, The National Sangha Council, a group of powerful
\nBuddhist monks, demanded that the Indian military should
\nintervene to prevent the fall of Jaffna to the Liberation Tigers
\nof Tamil Eelam (LTTE).<\/p>\n
The monks, who are extremely influential in a country where 76
\npercent of population is Buddhist, had met the Indian envoy over
\nthe weekend and appealed for Indian military help, local
\nofficials said on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n
They had strongly protested when Indian troops were sent to
\nSri Lanka to disarm the LTTE under a peace accord with Colombo in
\n1987. The Indian troops withdrew three years later after the
\ngovernment opposed their stay. India is home to 52 million Tamils
\nwho have ties with Sri Lanka's 3.2 million Tamils.<\/p>\n
\"SOS\", screamed a front-page headline in The Island, a pro-
\nopposition newspaper. The editorial said there was an immediate
\nneed to seek foreign assistance if Jaffna was to be saved.<\/p>\n
\"The government should make its first appeal to India. India
\nmay have good reasons to be reluctant to get involved in Sri
\nLanka. But Indians cannot remain aloof to what is happening
\nacross a few miles (kilometers) of sea on its southern coast.\"<\/p>\n
The paper said Washington has banned the LTTE as a terrorist
\norganization. \"Should it not help a country which it accepts to
\nbe a democracy struggling against a terrorist organization?\"
\nThere was no comment by the U.S. embassy.<\/p>\n
The Indian embassy too did not react to the demand for an
\nIndian intervention. But an official said Indian ambassador Shiv
\nShankar Menon has left for New Delhi for consultations.<\/p>\n
There has been no official Sri Lankan request either to New
\nDelhi or Washington.<\/p>\n
The International Committee of the Red Cross said the rebels
\nhanded over the bodies of 42 government soldiers killed in
\nSunday's battle.<\/p>\n
The military said 14 officers and soldiers were killed and 222
\nothers were wounded in the battle. The rebel's clandestine Voice
\nof Tigers Radio said Tuesday that 10 of their combatants were
\nkilled in the fighting.<\/p>\n
Independent confirmation of the claim was not possible was not
\npossible as journalists are barred from the war front and
\ntelephone links to the area have been cut.<\/p>\n
The guerrillas have been fighting since 1983 to carve out
\nEelam, a homeland where they say the nation's minority Tamils
\nwill not be discriminated by the Sinhalese majority.<\/p>",
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