SRI LANKA: Sri Lanka must brace for more war after Tamil Tigers rebel head calls for an independent state-analyst

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on Monday (November 27) said they saw no other option than to resume their demand for an independent state and resume their struggle. Shadowy Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, who had earlier pushed for a separate homeland for minority Tamils short of outright independence, called in an annual speech on Monday for international recognition of their struggle, which analysts said meant Sri Lanka should brace for more war. The Tigers spent much of their two-decade insurgency battling for independence, but scaled down their demand to a separate homeland within Sri Lanka after a 2002 cease-fire, now lying in ruins but which both sides argue still holds on paper. Prabhakaran said the cease-fire had become defunct and had been effectively buried by the government. The Sri Lankan government says the role of Norwegian envoys will have to be re-examined. "Then also he (LTTE leader Prabhakaran) says, due to the strategy of the Rajapakse regime, the CFA (ceasefire agreement) has become defunct, it is important as well. We will have to now ask the Norwegians and the SLMM what their role is going to be because Prabhakaran himself - no lesser person than Prabhakaran who is the head of the LTTE terror organisation - he himself says it is defunct. In other words, he is saying that your presence here is useless or is redundant," said defence spokesman Keheliya Rambukwalla. Analysts say the rebel leader is also running out of options. "I think the point here is that Mr. Prabhakaran does not have a great deal of options. Secondly I think he always finds he has to rally his forces, rally his constituency constantly reminding them of two things - one if the unwillingess, the inability of the Sri Lankan government to address Tamil aspirations and grievences and also to remind that whatever gains, whatever dignity and self respect the Tamil community got in the north and the east has been because of the force of LTTE arms .Therefore in the future you must support us," says Dr.Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, executive director at the centre for policy alternatives. Sri Lanka's military is still fighting rebels in the east. On Tuesday fierce artillery duel was battled out just hours after the rebels said they were resuming their two-decade independence struggle.

ITN Source | November 28, 2006

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