educated lawyer. Police cordoned off the roads around the residence of Kadirgamar, an ethnic Tamil and a top adviser of President Chandika Kumaratunga in Sri Lanka's protracted peace process with the Tigers. Heavily armed police officers fanned out into the plush central Colombo neighbourhood, searching the area. Helicopters circled overhead. The incident came just a day after the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) warned that the government's refusal to hunt down and disarm renegades fighting a silent war with their cadres in the east of the island could rekindle a war that has already killed more than 64,000 people. The Tigers accuse the military of helping a splinter faction led by a top former rebel commander called Karuna target and kill their political and military members and demands the government disarms them. Dozens of rebel cadres, policemen and soldiers have been killed since a truce was agreed in 2002, and some diplomats and analysts fear the rash of violence could spiral back into an all-out war. The Tigers have repeatedly warned that their patience is at breaking point and the truce in danger of collapse, but ceasefire monitors, peace envoys and analysts say a return to full-blown war is unlikely.
