The Ceylon News

Colombo, Feb 02: Two Divisions of Sri Lankan Army and hundreds of trapped Tamil civilians in the northern war zone had a close shave when security forces captured two Sea Tiger rebels as they were about to blow up a reservoir near Kilinochchi.

Though the Tiger rebels earlier blew up one or two smaller water bodies in an attempt to slow down the Sri Lankan forces' rapid advance on their strongholds, the Sea Tigers attempt to blast the Iranamadu Tank would have been catastrophic for the army, officials revealed today.

They admitted that if the Tigers had been successful, the Lankan army as well as its armoured columns would have got bogged down in mud and water, which the Tigers had planned.

As the Lankans got entangled in the slush, the Tigers had planned a swift incursion in boats to blast them, while their heavy artillery pounded them from positions a far.

The 57 division of the army revealed that they averted the disaster that was planned for January 25 or 28 after arresting two LTTE cadres, army officials said today.

According to the military sources, the LTTE militants had planned to launch a clandestine underwater suicide attack, exploding a section of the Iranamadu tank bund with over 75kgs of C-4 high explosives.

The detonation would have caused the destruction of the tank bund, flooding an entire land mass wrecking havoc, triggering a humanitarian catastrophe, what would have been the "worst ever in recent history", a military official said.

The Tigers had planned to place four 25 kg weighing 'limpet' mines (a type of mine with a magnetic base, frequently used by the LTTE to cause underwater detonation) which would have been carried by two suicide divers.

Lawyers burn effigies of Rajapaksa

group of advocates today burnt effigies of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa here, protesting the "killings" of civilian Tamils in the ongoing war in the island nation.

The advocates raised slogans against the Sri Lankan Government near the Egmore Metropolitan Court premises here, and demanded an end to the conflict between the Lankan army and the LTTE to save the Tamils, police said.

Lawyers affiliated to the Madras High Court Advocates Association and Tamil Nadu Advocates Association are on a boycott of the courts since January 30 over the Lankan issue.

Some students of the Dr B R Ambedkar Government Law College, located in the Madras High Court premises, were taken into custody when they tried to stage a demonstration in front of the college premises and later released.

The students urged the Lankan Government to bring an immediate ceasefire to protect the lives of civilian Tamils. They observed one-day fast after they were released, police said.

Meanwhile, All College Students Federation urged the Tamil Nadu Government to reopen colleges as it would help students to appear for their examinations.

The government on Saturday ordered indefinite closure of colleges and student hostels in the state in the wake of students' unrest on the Sri Lankan Tamils issue.

In a release, the federation also urged the students to participate in the strike on February 4 called by Sri Lankan Tamils Protection Movement protesting "killings of Tamils".

The number of civilians ranges from 120,000 to 250,000 in the rebel area

The Sri Lankan government has told civilians to leave an area where it is fighting Tamil Tiger rebels, saying it cannot guarantee their safety.

A statement said the battle in the north-east was at a "decisive stage".

It is unclear how the tens of thousands of people caught up in the fighting can escape. The rebels deny preventing people from leaving the area.

Earlier, the Red Cross said at least nine people were killed by shelling at a hospital in rebel-held territory.

"The government calls on all civilians to enter the demarcated 'safety zone' as soon as possible," the government statement said, AFP news agency reported.

"The government cannot be responsible for the safety and security of civilians still living among LTTE [Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam] terrorists," it said.

Sri Lanka's military says it has designated a safe zone for civilians in a 32 sq km buffer zone on the A-35 main road which links Paranthan and Mullaitivu.

Correspondents say the "safe zone" - declared unilaterally by the government on 21 January - is in territory still controlled by the rebels.

An army offensive has pushed the rebels into a 300 sq km (110 sq mile) corner of jungle in the north-east of the island, which aid agencies say also holds 250,000 civilians.

The government says the number of civilians is closer to 120,000 and that the army has a policy of not firing at civilians.

It accuses the Tamil Tigers of not allowing civilians to leave, saying they are being used as human shields.

The rebels say the civilians prefer to stay where they are under rebel "protection".

The government statement came a day after nine people were killed when shells hit a hospital in the area, the Red Cross says.

There has been no word from the rebels on the government statement or the shelling of the hospital, in the town of Puthukkudiyiruppu in Mullaitivu district.

Pro-rebel websites blamed the army for the attacks. But a military spokesman told the BBC that the army was not responsible.

After decades of strong-arming tiny neighbour Sri Lanka, India finds itself jostling for influence as the civil war nears an end, its power blunted by the island nation's growing ties with Pakistan and China.

While domestic political sensitivities over the fate of Sri Lanka's Tamils forced India to ease its leverage, rivals China and Pakistan stepped into the breach, offering Colombo military assistance in its war against the Tamil Tiger rebels.

China has sold Jian-7 fighters, anti-aircraft guns and JY-11 3D air surveillance radars to the resurgent Sri Lankan army as it seeks to finish one of Asia's longest-running wars by squeezing the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam fighters in a shrinking patch of jungle in the north.

Pakistan also supplied the army small arms, multi-barrel rocket launchers and trained Sri Lankan air force in precision guided attacks against the rebels, strategic analysts said.

"There have been several shipments of weapons from Pakistan. What has made a real difference to the outcome of the war is the Sri Lankan air force which has been rigorously trained by Pakistan in precision-guided attacks.," retired Indian army major general Ashok Mehta said.

India, by contrast, has limited its military assistance to the Sri Lankan army to "defensive weapons".

India has been limited by its insistence on protection of Sri lanka's Tamils, who are closely linked to 60 million Tamils in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, across a narrow strait from Sri Lanka.

"The shine has somewhat gone off from the leverage India has over Sri Lanka, partly because India has allowed it to happen," said Pakiasothy Saravanamuttu of the Colombo-based Centre for Policy Alternative.

China's and Pakistan's help against Tamil Tiger rebels may have been crucial, a former Sri Lankan official said.

"If not for China and Pakistan, we would not have been able to finish off the insurgency," K. Godage, a former deputy head of Sri Lanka's foreign office, told Reuters.

India trained and armed Tamil Tiger rebels in the early 1980s and followed it up a disastrous 1987-1990 peacekeeping foray into Sri Lanka, which has cast a long shadow over the war and made Sri Lanka wary of its giant neighbour.

National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan asked Sri Lanka to stop seeking arms from China or Pakistan last year, saying India as the regional power would still meet its defence requirements.

Narayanan made an unscheduled visit to Colombo last year to ensure Sri Lanka did not become a cockpit of regional rivalry, as with Afghanistan where Islamabad fears the influence of India.

This week, Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee visited Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, and the two discussed safety measures for Tamils trapped in fighting between the army and Tamil Tigers separatists, and post-war reconstruction.

The visit was also to cool tensions with Tamil Nadu politicians in India's ruling coalition who are sympathetic to the Tigers and demand India broker a ceasefire.

WIDER POWER STRUGGLE

The strategic battle in Sri Lanka is seen as part of a wider power struggle in South Asia, involving not only India and Pakistan but also China, which seeks to gain influence in the important economic region. China has made strides developing strategic assets, like the Gwadar port in Pakistan, the Sri Lankan port of Hambantota and assets in Yangon, part of a strategy to protect shipping lanes.

Sri Lanka sits next to shipping lanes that feed 80 percent of China's and 65 percent of India's oil needs.

"There is a convergence of strategic interest in Sri Lanaka among regional powers," said security analyst C. Uday Bhaskar.

But ignoring India may be hard for Sri Lanka. As the war appears to draws to a close, the focus is turning to the state of Sri Lanka's $32 billion economy.

Sri Lanka is suffering from costly short-term foreign debt. The war is expected to cost nearly $2 billion this year.

Indian investments in Sri Lanka have grown. Bharti Airtel Ltd. (BRTI.BO), India's top mobile operator, launched operations in Sri Lanka with a $200 million investment this month. Sri Lanka is also dependent on India for much of its fuel.

"Strategic relationship is also governed by trade, and India has a lot of room to manoeuvre in Sri Lanka," Saravanamuttu said. (Editing by Alistair Scrutton)

Sri Lanka's military has pushed the Tamil Tigers back into a small area of territory in the northeast [AFP] At least 13 people have been killed after a hospital in northern Sri Lanka was hit in three artillery attacks, United Nations officials have said. Staff were struggling to retrieve bodies after the children's ward of the Puthukkudiriruppu hospital in Mullaittivu district was struck about midnight, Gordon Weiss, a UN spokesman said on Monday. "The frontline is very close to this hospital," Weiss told Al Jazeera. "It is not confirmed as to who is behind the strike, but boths sides are using artillery, and it could have come from either side, there's a continuing toll on civilians and the hospital resources there are stretched to the limit." Dr Thurairajah Varatharajah, the region's most senior health official, said that the shells appeared to have been fired by the Sri Lankan army and caused extensive damage to the hospital. More than 500 patients were inside the hospital, one of the few still operating in an area where government forces say they are conducting the final phase of operations to overcome the Tigers. "We're shocked that the hospital was hit," said Paul Castella, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Colombo, Sri Lanka's capital. 'Acute stress' The ICRC did not say who was responsible for the latest attack, but people injured by the ongoing fighting continued to arrive at the hospital. "The staff are under acute stress, surrounded as they are by the sound of the ongoing fighting and the influx of new patients," Morven Murchison-Lochrie, an ICRC medical coordinator at the hospital, told the AFP news agency. Focus: Sri Lanka Q&A: Sri Lanka's civil war The history of the Tamil Tigers Timeline: Conflict in Sri Lanka "Ambulances are constantly arriving, but people are also being brought in by wagon, pick-up truck, tractor and even motor scooter." Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara, a military spokesman, said that the army was not responsible for the attacks. "Now the LTTE is firing very desperately everywhere artillery ... one of these shells may have fallen into that area," he said. Al Jazeera's Tony Birtley, who recently returned from northeastern Sri Lanka, said: "The army is saying they are not shelling into that area [where the hospital is]. They say they have sophisticated equipment to target the Tamil Tigers directly. "War is very murky. We don't know exactly what is going on. "Civilians are being pushed to an ever decreasing area. We're being told the Tamil Tigers are finished fighting but we think there is a lot more fight in them. We think civilinas are being used as human shields." Civilians trapped About 250,000 people are stuck in a 300sq km area near the northern town of Mullaittivu where advancing government troops are said to have surrounded the rebels, according to the ICRC. The government puts the number at about 120,000. Hundreds of civilians, including children, have been killed or wounded in fighting since last week, the Red Cross has said. Colombo disputes the figures. Aid groups continue to call for both sides to avoid civilian casualties [AFP] No independently confirmed figures for casualties in the recent fighting are available. The army has declared that rescuing civilians trapped by its offensive against the Tigers is one of its top priorities. Colombo has accused the rebels of holding civilian population hostage for use as human shields. The LTTE denies the allegation and has said people are refusing to go as they fear being abused by the army. S. Pasupathi, the co-ordinator of the World Tamil Relief Fund, told Al Jazeera that Tamil civilians "simply don't trust the Sri Lankan government". "It is impossible for the LTTE, with a small number of soldiers, to hold onto 250,000 Tamils," he said. "I think they feel safer in LTTE-controlled areas than the safe zone or army-controlled areas." The Tigers have been fighting since 1983 for a separate homeland for ethnic minority Tamils in the north and east. More than 70,000 people have been killed in the civil war.