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Tamils protest firing on demonstrators by Sri Lankan security forces

Residents of the northern Tamil-majority city of Jaffna shut businesses, schools and public transportation on Tuesday in a protest over government forces who earlier fired on ethnic Tamil demonstrators in eastern Sri Lanka.

One Tamil man was killed and another wounded on Monday when security forces fired on a crowd of about 300 demonstrators, including some schoolchildren, who demanded that a security checkpoint be removed.

Security officials had blamed the Tamil Tiger rebels for organizing the rally.

The Tiger rebels condemned the shooting on Tuesday blaming Sri Lanka's security forces, and warned the government against banning demonstrations by ethnic Tamils.

``Blocking peaceful protest by the people using arms and violence ... will affect the validity of the cease-fire agreement,'' a rebel statement said. ``We fear that incidents like this will ... create anger among the people and will lead to increased tension in the prevailing fragile situation.''

A 2002 Norwegian-brokered truce has been under increased strain recently with scores killed in violence since a split in the main guerrilla group a year ago.

The strike in the Tamil-dominated city of Jaffna, 300 kilometers (190 miles) north of the capital Colombo, was called by pro-rebel Tamil groups. Reports of similar strikes also came from the predominantly Tamil cities of Trincomalee, Batticaloa and parts of Ampara districts.

The rebels have been fighting since 1983 to carve out an independent homeland for the island's minority Tamils, who claim discrimination by the majority Sinhalese. Nearly 65,000 people were killed before the truce, however, peace talks have been stalled for the past two years.

Powerful Marxists vow to block tsunami aid deal with rebels, say it could divide Sri Lanka

Thousands of supporters of Sri Lanka's Marxist party - a key partner in the ruling coalition - demonstrated Tuesday against a government plan to set up a joint group with Tamil Tiger rebels to distribute foreign aid to tsunami victims in areas under rebel control.

``It will be the beginning of the division of this country if this joint mechanism is signed, so we will not allow it,'' Somawansa Amarasinghe, leader of the Marxist People's Liberation Front, told the rally at a square in Colombo.

Thousands of party members shouted slogans against the proposed deal.

The Marxist party has threatened to withdraw from the coalition government if it sets up the joint aid-distribution group with the guerrillas, saying it would help the rebels attain their goal of a separate Tamil state.

The party has 39 seats in the country's 225-member Parliament, and President Chandrika Kumaratunga's government could collapse without its support.

``As long as this coalition government is in force there will be no joint mechanism,'' party senior politburo member Tilvin Silva said. ``If it does take place that would mean the coalition no longer exists.''

Sri Lanka was the second-worst affected country after Indonesia by the December tsunami, with more than 31,000 people killed and nearly 1 million made homeless. The country's northeast, some of which is under rebel control, was hardest-hit by the powerful waves.

Little aid has reached victims of the tsunami in rebel-held areas. International donors are reluctant to give aid funds directly to the guerrillas, who are listed as terrorists by the United States and other nations.

The rebels have sought to receive foreign aid directly as a step toward self-rule.

The Tigers began fighting in 1983 for a separate state in the Tamil-majority north and east, claiming discrimination by the majority Sinhalese. The conflict left 65,000 people dead before a cease-fire was signed three years ago. Subsequent peace talks broke down a year later.

Khalid