A soldier on guard in Jaffna. (Reuters)

Jaffna, Jan. 6 (Reuters): Tension and distrust , between soldiers and civilians are growing in Sri Lanka’s northern army-held Jaffna enclave, with a spike in allegations of abuse by troops as fears rise of a return to civil war with Tamil Tiger rebels.

Sri Lanka’s Human Rights Commission said today that complaints against the army have grown since dozens of troops were killed recently in a series of suspected rebel attacks on the peninsula.

“After those attacks, we have been getting more complaints,” said the commission's regional coordinator, Rohitha Priyadarshina, a member of the Sinhalese majority working in a town where almost all are Tamils. “Some report missing people, some were arrested by the army.”

Other residents have reported being beaten up at army checkpoints, he said.

Of nearly 30 complaints of missing people, the commission was able to trace the individuals in all but four cases. Their families said they had all been taken by the army.

The military says the LTTE rebels, who have threatened to resume the war unless they are granted wide autonomy in the north and east, are trying to goad the army into over-reacting to win international sympathy.

“They shoot at us and hope that we will fire back,” said one officer. “But we do not fire if there are other people in front of us. We only shoot if we can see the target.”

Army officers say they are receiving intelligence about the rebels from residents and assert that 75 per cent of the local population opposes the Tigers.

But many residents said they resent what they see as an army occupation. They feel sidelined economically by the southern Sinahlese and want to administer their own affairs. Troops say they expect more attacks in the weeks to come, and possibly even a major assault from rebel territory. The city of Jaffna, which was lost by the Tigers to the army in 1995, appears to be the rebels’ main focus.

Analysts say regaining control of the city would be a key rebel objective if there is a resumption of the decades-old war, which killed over 64,000 people before a truce in 2002.