Norwegian-led peace monitors met with Tamil Tiger rebel leaders yesterday to discuss a "dangerous" split among the guerrillas, officials said.
The meeting in the rebel-held northern town of Kilinochchi came a day after a senior rebel said more than a third of the Tigers, or about 6,000 guerrillas, in eastern Sri Lanka had split off from the main insurgent army because of disputes over the deployment of fighters.
"I can confirm that the meeting has started," said Agnes Bragadottir, spokeswoman of the Norwegian-led Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission. She declined to give details. Kilinochchi is 275km north of Colombo.
Word of the rift, a month ahead of nationwide elections, is a blow to the rebels, who until now have been largely united in their 19-year war for a separate homeland. Although the split is unlikely to set off factional fighting, dissension among rebel ranks is seldom tolerated.
The guerrillas tried to present a united front yesterday. An unidentified spokesman for Karuna, the head of the eastern faction, denied there was a schism and pledged allegiance to the Tiger "leader," an apparent reference to top guerrilla leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran.
"We will be functioning directly under the command of our leader," the Karuna spokesman was quoted as saying by the TamilNet Web site, which reports on rebel affairs.
But a senior official from Karuna's office, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Wednesday that Karuna was heading a new faction after arguing with Prabhakaran over sending new recruits from the east to the north.
The official said Karuna felt that rebel leaders in the north had taken young fighters as well as other resources from the east, but not given anything back.
Prabhakaran will now command an estimated 9,000 troops, he added.
The official said the split would not lead to fighting between the rebel factions.
However, some rebels who have tried to leave the group in the past have been killed.
The split is likely to hamper efforts by Norwegian negotiators to secure a peace deal between the rebels and the government. Hagrup Haukland, deputy head of the peace monitoring team, described it as a "dangerous situation."
"We need to look closely at what's happening," Haukland said ahead of the trip.
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