Donors issue Sri Lanka truce plea

Factional fighting has broken out in the east

Sri Lanka's main foreign donors say escalating violence is threatening the island's peace process.

In a statement the donors expressed alarm at deteriorating security and urged the government and Tamil rebels to take urgent action to end bloodshed.

International support would be eroded and peace moves gravely jeopardised if the truce, agreed in 2002, stopped functioning, the statement said.

There has been a sharp rise in violence in the island's east in recent weeks.

Truce violations

The BBC's Dumeetha Luthra in Colombo says Sri Lanka's ceasefire is on the edge of collapse, with a low-level shadow war in the east spinning out of control.

Unless security is guaranteed, a central pillar of the ceasefire agreement will be undermined Donor statement

What started out last year as factional fighting between the rebels and a breakaway group is escalating into incidents between the rebels and Sri Lanka's military, a serious violation of the ceasefire.

The Tigers accuse the government of providing support to the splinter group.

They say if they are not given proper security escorts in government areas they will start carrying their own weapons.

Analysts say this can only lead to more confrontations.

Setback

Sri Lanka's key backers - the European Union, the United States, Japan and Norway - are providing most of the $4.5bn in aid pledged for rebuilding after years of war.

The donors said the Tigers must stop all killings by their forces and the Sri Lankan government must ensure all paramilitary groups are disarmed.

"Unless security is guaranteed, a central pillar of the ceasefire agreement will be undermined," the statement said.

"If the ceasefire agreement ceases to function, the wider peace process would be gravely jeopardised and international support for that process would be deeply eroded."

Last week President Chandrika Kumaratunga called for calm and has launched an investigation into the violence.

This comes amid a serious setback to implementing a post-tsunami aid-sharing deal which donors had hoped would help restart the peace talks.