Sri Lankan war claims 4,000 lives

Combatants made up the vast majority of deaths

By Frances Harrison in Colombo

The Sri Lankan military says nearly 4,000 people were killed and thousands more wounded in the last year of fighting against Tamil Tiger rebels in the north of the country.

Military analysts say this casualty figure is high, especially for a year which was dominated by small-scale operations on the battlefield.

But the military says it has had a number of recent successes on the battlefield, including securing the area around Jaffna city, their main administrative centre in the Jaffna peninsula.

Eleven a day die

According to the Sri Lanka military spokesman, Sanath Karunaratn, an average of 11 people die a day in the war - the vast majority of them combatants.

The military says about 1,500 soldiers died last year, compared to 2,500 rebels.

There is no independent confirmation of these figures, but the rebels recently said 16,000 of their fighters had been killed since the conflict started nearly two decades ago.

A former military commander described the government's latest casualty figures as "pretty high" by Sri Lankan standards, especially for a year which has seen mostly limited military operations.

According to the military spokesman, the Tigers' fighting force numbers only about 5,000, because he says the rebels are suffering heavy casualties, low morale and problems in recruitment.

Desertion problem

Asked about the current extent of the problem of desertion in the Sri Lankan army, the military spokesman said he had no figures.

He also said he thought there was nothing wrong with launching a military operation when the Tigers had made a unilateral offer of a ceasefire.

The information minister, Anura Yaha, said the rebels had to set out concrete proposals and start negotiations before the Sri Lankan government could consider a ceasefire.

He said the government's proposals were embodied in a draft constitutional reform bill which the Tigers could discuss with them.