Germany freezes aid pledges to Lanka

Overseas Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul told Berlin's daily Tagesspiegel that Germany had been frustrated that its aid to Sri Lanka was not being used effectively due to ongoing ethnic violence.

But she said that Berlin had no plans to cut off financial transfers entirely when asked if aid should be dependent on a lasting peace deal between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tiger rebels.

"We will not do that (cut off aid) because the tsunami victims would suffer," she said, referring to the Asian disaster two years ago that killed an estimated 31,000 people in Sri Lanka alone while another million were left homeless.

"However we have stopped making new pledges to the government until the peace process gets back into gear. It would be good if other Western governments did the same."

Wieczorek-Zeul said that because much of the aid to Sri Lanka was not reaching the people for whom it was intended, her ministry had redirected 19 million euros (25 million dollars) originally earmarked for Sri Lanka to Indonesia, the country hardest hit by the tsunami.

She said the funds, which will go towards construction of housing as well as education and training, will bring German aid for Indonesia through 2009 to 186 million euros.

Wieczorek-Zeul said that despite the civil war, Germany was continuing its aid projects in areas of Sri Lanka relief workers could still safely reach.

Reconstruction in Sri Lanka's northeast -- the part of the island worst affected by the tsunami -- has suffered with the escalation of fighting between government troops and the Tamil Tigers since early this year.

Meanwhile, Tamil Tiger guerrillas fired artillery and mortar bombs at government troops in eastern Sri Lanka yesterday drawing retaliatory fire from security forces, the defence ministry said.

The exchanges with the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) took place in the district of Batticaloa, the ministry said in a statement, adding that it suffered "no damages".

On Friday, the Tigers appealed to the International Red Cross to arrange a safe haven for thousands of civilians trapped by fighting in the district.