The Sri Lankan navy yesterday detained a privately owned Indian vessel attempting to smuggle tens of thousands of detonators for anti-personnel mines, a day after Tamil Tiger rebels agreed to resume peace talks with the government. The navy took into custody the five Indian crew members of the vessel, which was detained by a patrol boat late on Wednesday off northern Sri Lanka, an area under rebel control, Commander D K B Dassanayake said.
The vessel was carrying 3,800 boxes containing 61,056 detonators, the navy spokesman said.
"It is a huge find ... the shipment was meant for the LTTE," Dassanayake said, referring to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
The five men will be handed over to police, he said.
India's embassy declined to comment until it could confirm the seizure. "We can comment only after we have verified the news reports," said Magma Mallick, spokeswoman for the Indian High Commission.
But some in the war-weary north were less euphoric. "I like peace," a soldier said as he patrolled the army-held northern enclave of Jaffna, the scene of some recent attacks. "But I have experienced peace talks three times and every time it ends with the LTTE attacking us."
One Tamil civilian was killed overnight by unknown gunmen in the troubled east, the army said. Mounting violence has left more than 150 people dead in the north and east since December.
The defence ministry yesterday said that 92 servicemen were among those killed, while 182 had been injured.
The rebels, though, made a goodwill gesture yesterday by releasing a policeman. He is one of three child protection policemen held since September when they strayed into rebel territory as they tried to catch a suspected British paedophile.
"This is all very good," said Helen Olafsdottir, spokeswoman for the unarmed Nordic-staffed truce monitoring mission, "but let's not forget that there are two remaining in custody and we've been demanding their release for over four months."
Norwegian peace envoy Erik Solheim, who on Wednesday clinched the talks deal, however, was more upbeat. "I hope this is the start of good things to come," he said.
"We shouldn't see any Sinhala soldier getting killed by claymore mines or innocent Tamil civilians being killed in the northeast," he told Buddhist monks at a temple at Ambalangoda, southern Sri Lanka, yesterday.
The breakthrough was hailed worldwide and Switzerland said it was ready to host the talks.
"Switzerland supports the peace process under Norwegian facilitation ... it has declared itself ready that talks between the conflict parties can take place in Switzerland," Bern's embassy said in a statement.
PHOTO CAPTION
A member of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission walks past an effigy of President Mahinda Rajapakse burnt by Tamil protesters next to a military checkpoint on the A9 highway at the Omanthai unman area in Vavuniya, northern Sri Lanka January 24, 2006. (REUTERS)