The Tamil Tigers on Monday challenged Sri Lanka's police to identify two suspected rebel cadres arrested in connection with the assassination of Sri Lanka's foreign minister, again denying any involvement.
Police have arrested two Tamil youths they suspect are members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on suspicion of helping plan the sniper killing of Lakshman Kadirgamar on Aug. 12.

The sniper -- or snipers -- responsible for the killing are still at large, and the assassination has raised the spectre of a return to the Tigers' two-decade war for self-rule.

"As a nation we have already denied it," rebel media coordinator Daya Master said by telephone from their northern stronghold of Kilinochchi. "We want to know their identity."

"Normally they (the government) say Tigers have been arrested, that's the usual wording. We have to find out."

The Tigers have rejected government accusations that they killed Kadirgamar, but few in Colombo believe them. Dozens of their opponents have been gunned down since a 2002 ceasefire and analysts say their denial is a stock disclaimer.

However, the rebels have wound down their fiery rhetoric in the wake of the killing, and have vowed not to initiate a return to a conflict that has already killed over 64,000 people.

A senior police source said the suspects, arrested last week and the only pair now in custody, had visited senior rebels in Tiger territory.

"They are Tamils ... They were assisting the main people," a top Colombo Crime Division source told Reuters, asking not to be identified. He said they were suspected Tamil Tiger cadres.

"They had been taken to Kilinochchi and met with some LTTE hierarchy. That was some time ago," he added. "Enquiries are not completed. Until we proceed with the investigation and complete it, we can't have them produced in court and they'll be kept under emergency laws for some time."

Police spokesman Rienzie Perera confirmed two Tamil youths had been arrested, one a gardener, the other a trishaw driver.

Peace mediator Norway is arranging emergency talks between the two sides in a bid to find ways to preserve a 3-1/2-year truce -- the longest period of relative peace since the Tigers began their war for self-rule in earnest in 1983.

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