Report: Sri Lanka 's Tamil Tiger rebels draft 'anti-terrorism law'

Sri Lanka - 's Tamil Tiger rebels, listed as a terrorist organization in many countries, are drafting their own ``anti-terrorism laws'' to deal with government military and police personnel who enter their territory, a news report said Sunday.

The separatist Tigers, who run a de facto state in vast swaths of land in Sri Lanka - 's Tamil-majority northeast, often accuse the military of involvement in ``state terrorism'' in Tamil-majority areas.

Hundreds of Tamils have been killed in shadowy circumstances since December, the start of a surge in violence that threatens to drag the country back into full-scale civil war.

The Tigers put on trial in their own courts any government security personnel captured in their territory. In a faltering 2002 cease-fire agreement, the Sri Lankan government agreed to stay out of rebel-controlled areas.

The anti-terrorism law is expected to be finalized by the year end, the independent Sunday Times newspaper reported, quoting Eliyathambi Pararajasingham, in charge of the rebels own legal system.

At least one government policeman and a soldier are currently held by the Tigers despite repeated attempts by European cease-fire monitors to secure their release.

The guerrillas are blacklisted as a terrorist organization by India, the United States, the European Union and Canada.

Also on Sunday, a Tamil civilian whom rebels labeled a military informer was fatally shot.

Unidentified assailants shot dead Sivaprakasam Thirunavukarasu, 66, in northern Jaffna peninsula, according to an official at the Media Center for National Security.

The pro-rebel TamilNet Web site said Thirunavukarasu was a military informant but did not claim responsibility for the killing.

Separately, a sailor was injured when rebels threw a grenade at a guard point in an islet off Jaffna, 300 kilometers (185 miles) north of the capital, Colombo, said the official who requested anonymity because he isn't allowed to speak to the media.

More than 750 people half of them civilians have been killed since December but both sides deny responsibility and blame each other for the violence.

The Tigers began fighting the government in 1983 for a separate state for the country's ethnic minority Tamils, saying they can only prosper away from the domination of majority Sinhalese.

More than 65,000 people were killed until the 2002 Norway-brokered cease-fire

Civilian fatally shot, sailor wounded in latest violence in northern Sri Lanka

A Tamil civilian whom rebels labeled a military informer was fatally shot and guerrillas wounded a sailor in a grenade attack in northern Sri Lanka Sunday, an officials, as the island nation teetered on the edge of full-blown civil war.

Unidentified assailants shot dead Sivaprakasam Thirunavukarasu, 66, in northern Jaffna peninsula, according to an official at the Media Center for National Security.

The pro-rebel TamilNet Web site said Thirunavukarasu was a military informant but did not claim responsibility for the killing.

Separately, a sailor was injured when rebels threw a grenade at a guard point in an islet off Jaffna, 300 kilometers (185 miles) north of the capital, Colombo, said the official who requested anonymity because he isn't allowed to speak to the media.

The incidents are part of surging violence in Sri Lanka's ethnic Tamil-majority north and east that threatens to destroy a fragile cease-fire between the government and Tamil Tiger rebels.

More than 750 people _ half of them civilians _ have been killed since December but both sides deny responsibility and blame each other for the violence.

The Tigers began fighting the government in 1983 for a separate state for the country's ethnic minority Tamils, saying they can only prosper away from the domination of majority Sinhalese.

More than 65,000 people were killed until the 2002 Norway-brokered cease-fire.