COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s separatist Tamil rebels yesterday vowed never to return to peace negotiations unless the government halts a military campaign against them.
The leader of the political wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), S P Thamilselvan, said attacks by government forces would not force them to compromise.
Thamilselvan told the pro-rebel tamilnet.com website the government was trying to present the campaign as part of the “war on terror” to win international
support.
“The LTTE and the Tamil people under no circumstances will come to the table in a position of political and military weakness,” Thamilselvan said amid clashes between troops and the Tigers across the island’s northeast.
“It is a fallacy to think that by weakening the LTTE, the movement can be forced to compromise on its political stand.”
Tiger rebels have suffered territorial losses in the east since fighting escalated in January.
But the guerrillas took the conflict to a new level in March by using light aircraft for the first time to attack government military installations.
“... only when Tamils are strong, there is a chance that the (majority) Sinhalese leadership will come forward for a negotiated solution,” Thamilselvan said.
He also rejected a new offer of a political settlement from President Mahinda Rajapakse’s Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP).
“The latest proposal, which is the same as the one rejected and defeated by the Tamil people 30 years ago, makes it abundantly clear that the Sinhalese leadership is still baulking at proposing a just solution,” he said.
The SLFP this month offered a limited system of decentralisation of power, although the LTTE is fighting for an independent homeland for the Tamil minority.
“Through these actions Sinhalese leadership is destroying any remnants of hopes the Tamil people have in a peaceful solution,” Thamilselvan warned.
Both the Tigers and the Sri Lankan government say they are upholding a 2002 truce arranged by Norway and blame each other for the violence.
Meanwhile, six people were killed and 10 others were wounded as government troops traded fire with Tamil Tiger rebels in Sri Lanka’s war-torn north, the defence ministry said yesterday.
Security forces beat back an attempt by the LTTE to break through the frontline at Muhamalai in Jaffna district late on Saturday, killing three rebels, the ministry said.
In northwest Mannar district, troops clashed with the guerrillas late on Friday, killing two rebels and injuring seven, the ministry, said, adding that a government soldier also died and three others were hurt.
Over 4,800 people have been killed since a Norwegian-brokered ceasefire began unravelling in December 2005. More than 60,000 people have been killed in the island’s 35-year-old ethnic conflict. – AFP-
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