ATLEAST TEN DEAD AFTER LTTE AND KARUNA GROUP CLASH IN THE EAST

By Walter Jayawardhana

In internecine fratricidal clashes at least ten Tamils have died after the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) gun men ambushed a political office of Tamileela Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP)-or Karuna faction office at Valaichchenai, reports from Sri Lanka’s besieged Eastern Province reveal.

Though statements from the LTTE, TMVP and the government Security forces are slightly different all reports confirm there had been an attack on the political office of the Karuna faction- a break-away group of the LTTE and there had been a counter attack by the armed section of the Karuna faction on the LTTE killing some.

Pro-LTTE website Tamil Net claimed ten karuna faction members were killed while Karuna faction spokesman Azad Maulan said only three of them were killed and the karuna faction gunmen pursued the attackers and killed four of them. The LTTE spokesman Rasiah Ilantheriyan admitted four of their cadres were killed in the same area by government troops but it is customary for them to identify their men killed by Karuna as men killed by government troops.

Independent reports said the government troops were not involved in the above clashes and the battles were between the Tamil rebels and the renegade group of the Tamils.

Karuna was the the main army commander of the LTTE but broke away from the group and wanted to convert his section of guerillas as a political party. They claim that they would like to keep arms since the lTTE constantly attack them and they wanted theirs for self defense.

The Karuna faction said they are ready to handover the bodies of the four LTTE cadres whome they killed to the ICRC.

The claims and counter claims of the two groups indicate after about two years lapse again serious military clashes have started taking place indicating the political map of the Eastern province has changed since the two provinces were merged under the pressure of India . Karuna forces do not want the two provinces to be merged.

Actually Karuna group is trying to emerge as a political party of the East to one day govern it through the already existing provincial council by winning elections