No evidence of collusion says Kohona [Wednesday, May 24, 2006 - 11.00 GMT]

 By Simon Gardner

COLOMBO, May 23 (Reuters) - Some low-ranking Sri Lankan troops may be in contact with renegades opposed to the island's Tamil Tiger rebels, but there is no evidence of collusion, the head of the government's peace secretariat said on Tuesday.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have said they will not resume peace talks until the government makes good on a pledge to rein in such groups -- in particular breakaway rebels led by a former Tiger commander called Karuna.

Truce monitors say the military is at least turning a blind eye to Karuna followers in military-controlled territory, but the government says it cannot find anyone to disarm and that anyway hunting them down could risk escalating violence.

"There is no doubt that the military at the highest levels has discouraged any contacts (or) any assistance to the Karuna group," Palitha Kohona, head of the secretariat, told Reuters.

"But at the lowest rank and levels ... human contacts that were established during the three years of ceasefire may have continued. I don't have any evidence as to whether they are continuing or not, but we suspect there might be," he added.

The Tigers accuse the military of helping Karuna's men kill their fighters, and say continued attacks are the single biggest hurdle to resuming peace talks aimed at permanently ending a two-decade civil war that killed over 64,000 people.

The Tigers have pulled out of talks indefinitely, and have warned a low intensity conflict raging despite a 2002 truce could spiral into a full-blown war.

"It is not going to be an easy task to ensure that government soldiers break off all their contacts that existed previously with now Karuna's men," said Kohona, formerly head of the United Nations treaty section in New York.

"The government is determined to ensure that armed groups are not assisted or facilitated in any way by the security forces of the country. There may be lapses in the message going down through the rank and file, but this is only to be expected in any military," he added, citing abuses by U.S. troops in Iraq.

Any soldiers found helping Karuna's group would be prosecuted, Kohona said.

"It is definitely not the type of relationship the government encourages," he added. "But given human nature, I wouldn't be surprised that people fraternise with each other ... They fraternise, they drink with each other, they visit each others' homes. As to what happens beyond that I do not know."

LOW INTENSITY WAR

The Tigers and Nordic truce monitors both now say Sri Lanka is locked in a "low intensity war", though the government disagrees and says it is only retaliating in limited bursts.

And while analysts say the Tigers -- who want to carve out a separate homeland for ethnic Tamils in the island's north and east -- are spoiling for a full-fledged war, Kohona says war is not an option.

He said he was disappointed the Tigers warn talks are unlikely this year given escalating clashes, but hopes a visit this week by Norwegian envoys Erik Solheim and Jon Hanssen-Bauer will help bring both sides back to talks.

"I hope that there are some new ideas that they will be able to come and discuss with both the government and the LTTE and the sincere hope of the government is that they will be able to persuade the LTTE at this stage to come back to the negotiating table," he said.

"If we don't have talks, we are condemning ourselves to an eternity of conflict."

The ceasefire is still technically holding.

But more than 270 troops and civilians have been killed since early April and the rebels and the military are fighting increasingly frequent skirmishes with mortars and rocket propelled grenades near their forward defence lines in the north and east.

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Last Updated Date: May  24, 2006 -11.00 GMT