The National Anti-War Front (NAWF) stressed in a forum the need for dialogue between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the government.

Kumar Rupasinghe, the convener of the NAWF said "it is everyone 's responsibility to start talks."

Rupasinghe said the government has faced accusations of human rights abuses in the allegedly increasing number of disappearances and abductions of individuals in the island. More... Discuss this story Published: Mon Mar 19 23:51:47 EDT 2007

Sri Lankan commandos on foot patrol gunned down four Tamil Tiger rebels in Wellaweli, in eastern Batticaloa on Monday, military spokesman Brig. Prasad Samarasinghe said. In a separate incident Sunday in the same district, soldiers killed two rebels, he said. Twelve soldiers were wounded.

However, rebel spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan said three soldiers and a rebel fighter were killed during the Sunday incident.

Also Sunday, Sri Lanka - said its navy sank two ships believed to be ferrying arms and ammunition to the rebels. But rebels declined to either conform or deny the account.

The latest incidents come at a time when government shelling has driven tens of thousands of civilians in Batticaloa from their homes as it tries to gain control over countryside long used as a base for rebels trying to push the military out of territory in the north and east.

The rebels are fighting to create a separate homeland in Sri Lanka's north and northeast for minority ethnic Tamils.

A Norway-brokered cease-fire signed in 2002 mostly stopped two decades of violence, but fighting flared in 2005 after a new government was elected on a platform of getting tough with the insurgents. At least 4,000 people have since been killed, although neither side has officially withdrawn from the truce. Discuss this story Published: Mon Mar 19 07:17:00 EDT 2007

A Norway-brokered cease-fire signed in 2002 mostly stopped two decades of violence, but fighting flared in 2005 after a new government was elected on a platform of getting tough with the insurgents. At least 4,000 people have since been killed, although neither side has officially withdrawn from the truce.

On Sunday, Sri Lanka said its navy sank two ships believed to be ferrying arms and ammunition to the rebels.

The rebel spokesman, speaking by phone from the rebel headquarters in Kilinochchi, declined to either conform or deny the account.

``I am awaiting reports from our field commanders,'' he said.

The latest incidents come at a time when government shelling has driven tens of thousands of civilians in Batticaloa from their homes as it tries to gain control over countryside long used as a base for rebels trying to push the military out of territory in the north and east, where they hope to create an autonomous Tamil homeland.Discuss this story Published: Mon Mar 19 10:20:42 EDT 2007