Tamils Kill 18 Sinhalese Near Earlier Massacre Site

Tamil rebels killed at least 18 Sinhalese on Monday at a jungle hamlet not far from the spot where Tamils slaughtered 127 civilians three days earlier, the government reported.

Some political observers said the two massacres demonstrate that Tamil radicals are unwilling to negotiate, setting the stage for increased fighting between the military and rebels.

Government sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Monday that guerrillas invaded Vanella, a jungle village in the eastern Trincomalee district, and killed 18 people, including five women and five children.

Vanella is 18 miles southwest of the port of Trincomalee and only 10 miles from the site where guerrillas stopped three buses, two trucks and a car last Friday. In that incident, Sinhalese were segregated from Tamil and Muslim passengers before being gunned down.

U.S. Calls for Talks

In Washington, State Department spokesman Charles Redman said, “We call on all parties, especially the Tamil militants, to enter into meaningful negotiations without delay.”

Tilak Ratnakara of the government Media Center said both massacres were the work of rebels who seek a separate Tamil homeland in predominantly Tamil northern and eastern Sri Lanka.

Tamils, most of whom are Hindus, account for 18% of the 16 million people who live on this island just south of India. Sinhalese, who are Buddhists, make up 75% of the population.

Rebels often have killed Sinhalese villagers in predominantly Tamil areas of Sri Lanka, which formerly was known as Ceylon. Tamil rebels, the human rights organization Amnesty International and citizen groups accuse government security forces of attacks and reprisal raids on Tamils suspected of being extremists.

Drive on Police Camp

In the southern India city of Madras, a Tamil rebel group said Monday that it has begun a “large-scale military offensive” against a police commando camp in the Mullaitheevu district in northern Sri Lanka.

All Tamil rebel groups have headquarters in southern India, where 50 million Tamils live, and most formerly had training camps there.

The Eelam Revolutionary Organization said it began its assault on the police camp Sunday. It claimed that at least 100 men in the camp were killed and many fled and that a building was destroyed by rockets and grenades, but there was no official confirmation of an attack.