Tamil Rebels Hijack Train as Sri Lanka Peace Talks Falter

Breaking off a cease-fire, Tamil separatist guerrillas went on the offensive in Sri Lanka on Sunday, commandeering a train with 500 people aboard for five hours.

There were no reports of casualties in the train hijacking, but the government said many lives were lost in other attacks.

The upsurge in violence came as peace talks in the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan broke down despite efforts at reconciliation by the Indian government, which has been acting as mediator.

Charges of Atrocities

Cease-fire violations were a key issue when talks resumed last Monday amid conflicting reports about the new violence. Each side accused the other of atrocities.

The official death toll was 71 in three days of steadily escalating violence between the minority Tamil separatists and the majority Sinhalese. The rebels say several hundred people have been killed.

Sri Lanka’s President Junius Jayewardene put security forces on alert and extended a state of emergency as Sinhalese and Tamils fled centers of violence to their communities’ strongholds.

About 25 rebels seized the train near the northwestern town of Mannar and headed toward the center of the island.

After five hours, the driver derailed the train, and the guerrillas fled in a jeep, which they had loaded into a freight car on the end of the train, railroad officials said.

Statement by Rebels

A statement by the Eelam National Liberation Front, an alliance of four major Tamil groups, said the guerrillas were calling off the two-month-old cease-fire because of government atrocities and the collapse of talks.

Sri Lankan Information Minister Anandatissa de Alwis said Sunday that Tamil groups were putting out false reports of civilian massacres by government troops as a pretext to quit the talks.

The guerrillas are pressing for independence for Sri Lanka’s 2.5 million Tamils. The island has a total population of 16 million. The Sinhalese are mostly Buddhists and the Tamils predominantly Hindu.