M A I N   N E W S

LTTE declares 12-hr ceasefire
Army steps up ground attacks

LONDON, May 26 (PTI) — The LTTE tonight declared a 12-hour ceasefire from 10 a.m. tomorrow to enable the civilians to move to safer places raising fear of intensified assault against government troops in Jaffna peninsula.

Reports from Sri Lanka’s war-zone quoting clandestine rebels’ radio said the Tigers had declared unilateral ceasefire and asked people to leave the area between 10 a.m. and 10 p.m. and the International Red Cross had been informed accordingly.

However, there was no independent confirmation of the ceasefire.

Reports from Colombo said the Sri Lankan army had stepped up ground attacks on various rebel positions, killing 13 Tamil guerrillas as the LTTE deadline asking besieged 30,000 troops to withdraw from Jaffna at 6 p.m.

As the LTTE deadline expired at 6 p.m., Tamil rebels targeted government troops at strategic locations in the Jaffna peninsula with heavy barrage of artillery and mortars prompting the troops to hit back with artillery fire on the suspected rebels’ hideouts, an official statement said today.

Three rebels were killed at Nagerkovil followed by six others who came under attack from troops while travelling in a truck toward Navatkuli bridge on the north of Jaffna town. Four rebels were killed by troops near Omanthai in northern Vanni, close to the government-held northern Vavuniya in the LTTE-held Vanni region.

Meanwhile, the LTTE stepped up its propaganda campaign to demoralise the troops by raising the pitch of its public announcements asking soldiers to surrender.

The clandestine rebels’ radio, ‘Voice of Tigers’, monitored in various northern provinces repeatedly reminded 30,000 government soldiers in the northern Jaffna peninsula to surrender by this evening. It said those who surrendered would be handed over to International Red Cross within 24 hours. Today was the last day of the week-long deadline given by the LTTE to the troops to surrender.

Meanwhile the Lankan Government has called upon retired officers to re-enlist for six months of voluntary service.

The Sri Lankan Defence Ministry, in a statement, appealed to the youths to assist the armed forces, and said the retired officers would be posted in non-operational areas, thereby enabling it to shift soldiers on security duty to combat zones.

Meanwhile life in Colombo and its suburbs was normal and there was no panic buying. The war had also not forced the cancellation of conferences and seminars. A millennium exhibition and seminar on the free trade agreement between India and Sri Lanka was inaugurated today, with a sizeable participation from India. 

Prabhakaran offered Jaffna CM’s post

UNI: Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga on Friday offered LTTE supremo V. Prabhakaran the chief ministership of Jaffna province if he gave up his policy of terrorism and joined the democratic process in the country's political life.

In an interview to a television news channel, Mrs Kumaratunga categorically stated she would not withdraw government troops from the province "let the LTTE withdraw its troops before we begin talks" on resolving the ethnic problem.