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Tigers hunt for renegade leader in east
Tamil Tiger rebels were back in full control of eastern Sri Lanka and launched a new search for the renegade guerrilla leader.
Tamil Tiger rebels were back in full control of eastern Sri Lanka today, and launched a new search for a renegade guerrilla leader who had carved out a fiefdom there but whose forces dissipated in recent days in the face of a rebel onslaught.
The northern-based Tigers secured all the areas that had been claimed by V Muralitharan when he broke away from the group last month and set up his own Eastern Tigers, military officials and cease-fire monitors said today.
The area of recent fighting was now safe enough for the European ceasefire monitors to resume their work today, mission deputy chief Hagrup Haukland said. The group pulled out because of the rebel schism early last month.
"We are back in business and we have resumed our normal duties," the deputy chief said.
This week's Tamil-versus-Tamil violence, which left an estimated few dozen dead, had posed one of the greatest threats to this tropical's peace since a landmark 2002 ceasefire agreement ended 19 years of fighting between Tamil separatists and the Sinhalese-dominated government.
The violence had risked drawing in government troops in bases nearby, provoking a broader conflict.
The Tigers launched new efforts today to comb the jungle for Muralitharan after failing to find him or any of his top accomplices in the region the day before, military sources said.
