Special report: Ceasefire over in Sri Lanka

    COLOMBO, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- The Head of the international truce monitoring team in Sri Lanka Saturday said that both the government and the Tamil rebels need to share the blame for the present conflict situation in the island.

    Comments from Ulf Henricsson, the chief of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), came after a day of intense fighting between the government troops and the rebels in the northeastern battle zones.

    Henricsson said that "in reality there is no ceasefire on the ground," adding that both the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels and the government do not appear to be wanting to pursue the process of negotiations.

    In terms of the February 2002 Norwegian brokered truce, both sides need to give 14-day notice to the Norwegians if they wanted to abrogate the agreement and resume fighting. But both sides have appeared to show little regard to the truce agreement despite saying that both are committed to the Norwegian backed process..

    The government said the Tiger attacks had been successfully repulsed and the situation had been brought under control.

    Heavy exchanges of artillery and mortar fire took place in the northern Jaffna peninsula and the eastern port and the Naval base of Trincomalee.

    Brigadier Athula Jayawardena of the Army said that 22 soldiers, three officers and two Navy men had been killed in Saturday's attack. He thought over 100 LTTErs had been killed.

    LTTE spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan said that 12 of their cadres had died in the battles. The clashes were sparked off when the Tigers began firing shells on the Jaffna peninsula's Muhamalai forward defense lines around 5.30 p.m. local time (1200 GMT).

    The rebels had also targeted areas of Nagarkovil, Tanankilappu and the Kilali lagoon in the Jaffna peninsula.

    The Tiger attack on the eastern Naval base and the Trincomalee harbor began at around 2 a.m. local time Saturday (2030 GMT, Friday), naval officials said. But by 6 a.m. local time (0030 GMT)the attack had come to a halt as the security forces hit back, officials said.

    The attack on Trincomalee by the rebels was the second attack this month. On Aug. 1, the LTTE fired artillery and mortars targeting a Sri Lankan troops carrier vessel as it was just about to enter the port.

    The fighting is a continuation of clashes which erupted between the two sides late July with a decision by the rebels to shut down an irrigation sluice gate in the eastern province.

    The Army made its first open advance since the February 2002 ceasefire aimed at seizing the sluice gate forcibly shut down by the rebels denying water to the civilians.

    The water spat and the fights that ensued caused a large scale displacement of Muslims from the Muslim dominated town of Muttur last week.

    The rebels said on Thursday that 42,000 people in the areas under their control in the north eastern province were displaced due to Sri Lanka Airforce raids on Tiger positions there.

    The fighting is the worst since the two sides entered the Norwegian backed peace process in 2002.

    More than 64,000 people were killed since the mid 1980s in the armed conflict as the Tamil Tiger seeks a separate homeland for the minority Tamils in the north and east provinces. Enditem