Sri Lankan rebel leader threatens to launch freedom struggle

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) leader said Saturday the rebels would be compelled to launch the freedom struggle for the Tamil nation if peace talks were further delayed, the pro-rebel website TamilNet said.

Velupillai Pirapaharan, the LTTE leader, gave the warning to the Sri Lankan government in his annual statement marking the so-called Heroes Day.

The LTTE leader in an urgent appeal called on the Government of Sri Lanka to resume the peace talks without conditions on the basis of the Interim Self-Governing Authority as proposed by his organization.

"If the government rejects our urgent appeal, adopts delaying tactics perpetuating the suffering of our people, we have no alternative other than to advance the freedom struggle of our nation," Pirapaharan declared.

The rebels' leader severely censured Sinhala political parties for their lack of a clear, coherent policy or proper insight into the fundamental issues underlying the Tamil national question.

Pirapaharan urged the Sinhala political parties in the south to openly declare their official position on the core issues of the Tamils while pointing out that "there is division, discord, confusion and contradiction within the Sinhala political leadership on the Tamil issue."

The LTTE leader further asserted that the Tamil people could not continue to live in a political vacuum without an interim solution or a permanent settlement.

"The Sinhala nation neither assimilates and integrates our people to live in co-existence nor does it allow our people to secede and lead a separate existence." he said.

"We cannot continue to live in the darkness of political uncertainty, without freedom, without emancipation, without any prospects for the future," he added.

The LTTE's Heroes Week, ended with the LTTE leader's speech on Saturday, is commemorated to celebrate their armed rebels who have died since their armed struggle commenced with the government troops.

The LTTE rebels had been fighting against government forces to set up an independent Tamil homeland in the north and east since 1983 until they entered into a Norwegian-brokered cease-fire in February 2002.

The Norwegian facilitators, which back peace talks between the government and the LTTE rebels, have been trying to revive the stalled peace talks since May this year but their efforts have been futile so far. กก