Kilinochchi Sarvanandam Anandarajah (R) and his family members wait while their meal is prepared at a refugee camp run by Kilinochchi Development, Relief and Rehabilitation Organization (KDRRO), in Tamil Tiger held Kilinochchi, northern Sri Lanka, January 3, 2006. Hundreds of residents have fled the government army-held Jaffna peninsula in northern Sri Lanka into Tamil Tiger territory, rebel officials said on Tuesday, but while some refugees said they were fleeing military harassment and feared war would resume, others said they wanted to fight alongside the rebels.
Kilinochchi Sarvanandam Anandarajah (R) and his family members wait while their meal is prepared at a refugee camp run by Kilinochchi Development, Relief and Rehabilitation Organization (KDRRO), in Tamil Tiger held Kilinochchi, northern Sri Lanka, January 3, 2006. Hundreds of residents have fled the government army-held Jaffna peninsula in northern Sri Lanka into Tamil Tiger territory, rebel officials said on Tuesday, but while some refugees said they were fleeing military harassment and feared war would resume, others said they wanted to fight alongside the rebels.
JAFFNA, Sri Lanka, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Speeding along the rough roads of the Sri Lankan army-held Jaffna peninsula, guarded by armoured vehicles front and back, convoys transporting troops near Tamil rebel-held areas take no chances.
While a 2002 ceasefire is still technically holding, a string of suspected claymore fragmentation mine attacks on patrols and convoys in December -- the deadliest month by far since the truce -- killed 39 military personnel. Most troops patrolling Jaffna say they expect war.
"Last month, it changed," said 23-year-old Private Waduge Krishan Dehevapiya, like most soldiers one of the island's Sinhalese majority.
"We are scared. But we are soldiers. We know we will have to face that kind of strategy."
Sri Lanka's Tamil minority lives mostly in the island's north and east, where the Tamil Tiger rebels have a de facto state in most areas, except the Jaffna peninsula, which they have held intermittently and now want back.
In the latest violence, a navy Israeli-built Dvora patrol boat exploded off the northeastern coast on Saturday after being rammed by what officers said was a suspected Tiger suicide boat. Only two of the 15 crew were rescued and the others are missing, presumed dead.
Violence in the Tamil-dominated north has risen sharply since a Tiger boycott of the November presidential election helped President Mahinda Rajapakse win -- seen as the candidate least likely to cut a deal with the rebels. Analysts say the boycott suggests the Tigers are tired of the peace process.
Shortly after the election, the rebels warned they would "intensify their struggle" without new concessions and now say army atrocities in Jaffna could force them into war.
They say they are not behind the attacks, but few diplomats believe them. Neither side can agree a venue for talks.
The army deny their soldiers are abusing civilians, but say the language barrier hampers communication. Tamil courses are now being run, but officers say they should have started much earlier in a two-decade old war that has killed over 64,000.
But they say their most serious worry is safeguarding their supply routes, particularly around Jaffna -- which is cut off from the rest of the island by rebel territory, leaving the military to rely on resupply by air and sea.
HAIL OF STEEL
Within the peninsula itself, the army has only two main supply routes: the road from Jaffna town to the Palaly air base and the main road that runs to the northern border of rebel territory.
"If we had enough men, we would line the entire route," one officer said. "But we do not."
Instead, patrols -- some of only a couple of soldiers, some of sixty or so men -- repeatedly comb the roads, cutting back undergrowth and rooting through piles of rubble from the previous conflict for signs of mines or potential ambushes.
Two days before Christmas, the military says the rebels attacked a navy bus near the northwestern Mannar Sea.
A claymore fragmentation mine blasted a hail of steel ball bearings into the vehicle, which was then hit with rocket propelled grenade fire. Thirteen died.
After that and similar attacks near Jaffna, buses and trucks travel in convoy, often protected by South African-made Buffel armoured personnel carriers. Soldiers stand in bus doors and out of hatches on truck cab roofs, with AK-47s at the ready.
Some soldiers strap their flak jackets to the truck cab doors, hoping to protect the driver from any claymore blast so the vehicle keeps moving until it is out of the danger area.
But while soldiers say the attacks are pressuring troops -- some of whom have spent four years in the north and east, only rotating out for training -- they expect before long to be facing a Tiger offensive aimed at taking Jaffna.
"We are ready every day," said a senior officer. "We have to be. We cannot say it will happen. It is down to politics."
Kilinochchi Sarvanandam Anandarajah (R) and his family members wait while their meal is prepared at a refugee camp run by Kilinochchi Development, Relief and Rehabilitation Organization (KDRRO), in Tamil Tiger held Kilinochchi, northern Sri Lanka, January 3, 2006. Hundreds of residents have fled the government army-held Jaffna peninsula in northern Sri Lanka into Tamil Tiger territory, rebel officials said on Tuesday, but while some refugees said they were fleeing military harassment and feared war would resume, others said they wanted to fight alongside the rebels.
JAFFNA, Sri Lanka, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Speeding along the rough roads of the Sri Lankan army-held Jaffna peninsula, guarded by armoured vehicles front and back, convoys transporting troops near Tamil rebel-held areas take no chances.
While a 2002 ceasefire is still technically holding, a string of suspected claymore fragmentation mine attacks on patrols and convoys in December -- the deadliest month by far since the truce -- killed 39 military personnel. Most troops patrolling Jaffna say they expect war.
"Last month, it changed," said 23-year-old Private Waduge Krishan Dehevapiya, like most soldiers one of the island's Sinhalese majority.
"We are scared. But we are soldiers. We know we will have to face that kind of strategy."
Sri Lanka's Tamil minority lives mostly in the island's north and east, where the Tamil Tiger rebels have a de facto state in most areas, except the Jaffna peninsula, which they have held intermittently and now want back.
In the latest violence, a navy Israeli-built Dvora patrol boat exploded off the northeastern coast on Saturday after being rammed by what officers said was a suspected Tiger suicide boat. Only two of the 15 crew were rescued and the others are missing, presumed dead.
Violence in the Tamil-dominated north has risen sharply since a Tiger boycott of the November presidential election helped President Mahinda Rajapakse win -- seen as the candidate least likely to cut a deal with the rebels. Analysts say the boycott suggests the Tigers are tired of the peace process.
Shortly after the election, the rebels warned they would "intensify their struggle" without new concessions and now say army atrocities in Jaffna could force them into war.
They say they are not behind the attacks, but few diplomats believe them. Neither side can agree a venue for talks.
The army deny their soldiers are abusing civilians, but say the language barrier hampers communication. Tamil courses are now being run, but officers say they should have started much earlier in a two-decade old war that has killed over 64,000.
But they say their most serious worry is safeguarding their supply routes, particularly around Jaffna -- which is cut off from the rest of the island by rebel territory, leaving the military to rely on resupply by air and sea.
HAIL OF STEEL
Within the peninsula itself, the army has only two main supply routes: the road from Jaffna town to the Palaly air base and the main road that runs to the northern border of rebel territory.
"If we had enough men, we would line the entire route," one officer said. "But we do not."
Instead, patrols -- some of only a couple of soldiers, some of sixty or so men -- repeatedly comb the roads, cutting back undergrowth and rooting through piles of rubble from the previous conflict for signs of mines or potential ambushes.
Two days before Christmas, the military says the rebels attacked a navy bus near the northwestern Mannar Sea.
A claymore fragmentation mine blasted a hail of steel ball bearings into the vehicle, which was then hit with rocket propelled grenade fire. Thirteen died.
After that and similar attacks near Jaffna, buses and trucks travel in convoy, often protected by South African-made Buffel armoured personnel carriers. Soldiers stand in bus doors and out of hatches on truck cab roofs, with AK-47s at the ready.
Some soldiers strap their flak jackets to the truck cab doors, hoping to protect the driver from any claymore blast so the vehicle keeps moving until it is out of the danger area.
But while soldiers say the attacks are pressuring troops -- some of whom have spent four years in the north and east, only rotating out for training -- they expect before long to be facing a Tiger offensive aimed at taking Jaffna.
"We are ready every day," said a senior officer. "We have to be. We cannot say it will happen. It is down to politics."
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