Tension continue to run high in north- east Sri Lanka after three claymore blasts killed two policemen, a paramilitary guard and a civilian on April 21. Soon after, a civilian belonging to the minority Tamil community was killed by a mob in a nearby area and at least five Tamil-owned houses were set ablaze. The attack was believed to be in retaliation for the killing of the paramilitary guard, reports M&C News.



In a separate claymore mine blast, a civilian was killed in another area. The military blamed the blasts on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels.



The attacks came as the head of the Scandinavian ceasefire monitoring team was travelling to northern Sri Lanka, to meet a rebel representative for talks on ending the deadlock between the Sri Lankan government.



A day earlier, A Norwegian peace envoy met with rebels to end a dispute over transport for rebel military leaders before next week’s peace talks. But the talks failed and talks have been postponed.



Rebels initially wanted a government helicopter to fly two of their eastern military wing commanders to the north for consultations with their leadership. But the government in Colombo denied the request and made arrangements for sea transport to be monitored by the Scandinavians.The sea movement scheduled for last Saturday was called off after rebels claimed the navy was interfering, which the government denied.

Peace talks were due to be held on April 24 and 25 in Switzerland. The peace talks are aimed at finding a political solution to the Tamil minority ethnic conflict which has lasted for 22 years and claimed more than 70,000 lives.