Aid agency worker shot to death in eastern Sri Lanka , military says

Associated Press, Thu August 24, 2006 07:42 EDT . - - COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - (AP) Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels Thursday fatally shot an ethnic Sinhalese man working for a New Zealand-funded aid agency in troubled eastern Sri Lanka - , the Defense Ministry said. Sri Lanka - 's four-year cease-fire has nearly collapsed with renewed fighting in the northeast, killing hundreds of people and tens of thousands of civilians have been displaced, prompting local and international aid agencies to warn of a growing humanitarian crisis.

Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rebels have fought since 1983 to create a separate state for the country's minority Tamils citing decades of discrimination by the majority Sinhalese-dominated state.

More than 65,000 people have been killed in the insurgency.

The 2002 cease-fire brokered by Norway temporarily halted the bloodshed, but the past few months have seen renewed fighting in the north and east, where the rebels want to establish a separate state.

The international community has called for an immediate end to the hostilities and a return to the peace process that faltered earlier this year when the rebels refused to attend a round of peace talks in Geneva, Switzerland