Sri Lanka: A breakaway Tamil rebel commander was on the run in Sri Lanka yesterday after thousands of his fighters laid down their arms in the face of a Tamil Tiger offensive, officials said.
Eastern Tamil commander Karuna has been locked in a standoff with the northern-based Tigers since early March, taking about 6,000 of the group's 15,000 fighters with him as he accused the northern leadership of discriminating against eastern Tamils.
But the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam's (LTTE's) launched an offensive on Friday to retake territory held by the rebel, after vowing last month to "get rid of Karuna from our soil".
His replacement was now starting to take control in the eastern Batticaloa and Ampara districts.
"Ramesh is now in Batticaloa and he asked for a meeting with us tomorrow," said Mr Hagrup Haukland, deputy head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, which oversees a truce between the Tigers and government troops.
The Tamil infighting has cast a cloud over efforts to end the island's civil war. There had been worries the military would get dragged into the factional fighting, but that has not happened as fighters loyal to Karuna fled.
It was estimated that more than 2,000 of Karuna's fighters had given up and were returning to their villages. Karuna's faction could not be contacted.
The split overshadowed a campaign for the island's April 2nd parliamentary election and raised concerns of further delays to early peace talks between the LTTE and the new government.
The clashes were the first fighting since a Norwegian-brokered truce signed in February 2002, the longest break in the civil war that has killed more than 64,000. - (Reuters)