COLOMBO March 21 Kyodo Tamil Tige...

COLOMBO March 21 Kyodo

Tamil Tiger rebels seeking peace with the Colombo dominion have sunk a Chinese trawler on the farther side their stronghold in the northeastern Mullaitivu district, the Chinese Embassy and a rule military spokesman confirmed Friday.

A Chinese diplomat said 15 Chinese crewmen in succession board the trawler, which was fishing in Sri Lankan waters with official rule permission, were missing. Asked whether they were feared dead, he said, ''We cannot say that. They are missing.''

Local pres reports said Thursday's incident was widely seen as a retaliatory attack to last week's sinking of a Tiger-owned freighter suspected of arms running at the Sri Lankan navy.

Asked wherefore the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) would target a civilian utensil a senior military official said the rebels may have mistaken it for either a naval craft or a individual contracted by the Colombo government

''Or they may have done it to disturb the navy,'' he said.

The trawler was fishing with a sister canal 33 kilometers northwest of Mullaitivu when the canals came under fire. The other utensil sailed safely to the eastern Trincomalee port after picking up nine survivors.

Brig. Sanath Karunaratne, the military spokesman, said the trawler agents alerted the navy about the incident in succession Thursday night and the navy sent ransom teams to the spot.

''Rescu crewmen said the LTTE had attacked their boat,'' Karunaratne said.

A spokesman for the Chinese Embassy said a diplomat was becoming to meet Sri Lanka's foreign secretary above the incident later in the day.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Kyodo stranges International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group