European Union nations criticised Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels Monday for killing rivals and recruiting child soldiers, appealing to the guerrillas not to undermine the Island's Norwegian-led peace bid.
Top envoys from the Netherlands and Britain, together with the EU delegation chief here, Wouter Wilton, urged the Tigers to settle their internal differences peacefully without jeopardising the peace efforts.
The envoys held talks with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) political wing leader S.P. Thamilselvan as another political rival was gunned down by suspected Tiger rebels in the capital Colombo Monday, the latest in a series of shootings.
"There is no excuse for such violence, which can never resolve the internal differences in Sri Lanka," the envoys said in a joint statement after the meeting. "The EU is concerned and alarmed about the recent increase in political killings and the inability of the LTTE to solve internal differences in a peaceful manner," the statement added.
Norway has described the escalation of violence following the split in the Tamil Tiger movement as the most dangerous since the cease-fire came into effect in February 2002.
Regional Tiger commander V. Muralitharan, better known as Karuna, led the split in March. Five weeks later, he escaped an onslaught and went underground after disbanding up to 6,000 fighters under him in the island's troubled east.
The statement came a day after the Tigers refused to accept any counter-proposals from the Colombo government to revive peace negotiations stalled since April last year.
Thamilselvan was quoted as saying in the pro-rebel Tamilnet website Sunday that the LTTE suspected President Chandrika Kumaratunga's government would make counter-proposals it knew were unacceptable to the Tigers as a way to keep them away from negotiations.
"We consider the counter-proposals by the government of Sri Lanka as a pretext to block us from coming to the negotiating table," Thamilselvan said.
However, the EU envoys blamed the Tigers, and accused the LTTE of failing to honour promises not to recruit child soldiers.
While diplomatic efforts to get the Tigers and the government to resume talks have failed, both sides maintain they are committed to the truce and keeping up the peace process.
The peace process is officially held up due to differences over an agenda for re-starting talks, but diplomats say an unprecedented split among the rebels could be the real reason.
The Tigers have been fighting for three decades to establish a separate homeland for the Tamil minority at the cost of some 60,000 lives.
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