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Sri Lanka

Two Sri Lanka aid workers resurface, 8 missing

By Peter Apps

COLOMBO, Feb 1 (Reuters) - Two workers from an aid group linked to Tamil Tiger rebels have resurfaced after being reported kidnapped, but eight colleagues were still missing on Wednesday and diplomats said the abductions might hit key peace talks.

The rebels have accused the government of being behind the abduction of the 10 Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO) workers and have said the incident threatened their attendance at peace talks with the government in Switzerland later this month.

The army says the entire kidnapping was a fabrication, but the aid group stuck to the story on Wednesday.

"They were abducted and they have testified to that effect," TRO consultant Arjunan Ethirveerasingam said of the two workers who resurfaced on Wednesday.

"We're still not sure exactly what happened. They had been with their families from yesterday, but they were too scared to come out."

A string of attacks on troops in the minority Tamil-dominated north and east tested a 2002 truce almost to destruction, but monitors said tension eased after Norwegian envoy Erik Solheim brokered an agreement last Wednesday for the two sides to meet. But vast differances remain even if they do go to Geneva, particularly over Tiger demands for Tamil homeland. Diplomats say a return to a two-decade-old war that has already killed more than 64,000 remains worryingly possible.

The TRO -- based in the rebel capital Kilinochchi and closely tied to the Tigers -- said 10 staff were abducted in two separate incidents in the east on Sunday and Monday, one near an army outpost.

"It is a very bad and sad sign," said Hagrup Haukland, head of the Nordic-staffed mission monitoring the truce, before news came that two of the aid workers had resurfaced. "If it is so, then the Geneva meeting may be in danger or jeopardy."

BASELESS ALLEGATION

A string of telephone calls and text messages from the TRO asking for help in tracking down the missing workers convinced some international aid staff and diplomats, but others said the abduction may have been a Tiger gambit to strengthen their hand or even get out of talks.

The army said the whole story was a fabrication.

"It is a baseless allegation against the security forces," army spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe said. "It never happened close to our checkpoint. If it had, a lot of civilians would have seen it."

TRO officials said the two aid workers who resurfaced on Wednesday had met truce monitors and would be making a formal complaint to police, but added they had yet to interview them properly.

The monitors said they could not confirm anything.

The TRO says the staff disappeared in areas widely said to be strongholds of the Karuna group, a breakaway Tiger faction that the rebels say now acts as government-backed paramilitaries.

Karuna was widely blamed for an attack on the Tigers hours after the two sides agreed to talk, but diplomats say the government may have reined them in under international pressure.

Rogue army commanders and majority Sinhalese nationalists are also seen possibly wanting Geneva talks dead before they start.

The stock market fell in December and January with every new attack, but rallied after Solheim's visit last week. It closed 0.88 percent down on Wednesday, with traders blaming the reported kidnappings.