Tigers threaten to resume war

Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger guerrillas yesterday declared they will renew armed struggle unless the Colombo government immediately agrees to revive peace talks based on a rebel blueprint for self-rule. Tiger supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran, in a speech broadcast over rebel radio, said he had "reached the limits of patience" and wanted Colombo to end the 19-month deadlock in Norwegian-backed peace talks.

"If the Government of Sri Lanka rejects our urgent appeal and adopts delaying tactics, perpetuating the suffering of our people, we have no alternative other than to advance the freedom struggle of our nation," he said.

In his speech, widely regarded as the annual policy statement of the rebels who have been observing an Oslo-brokered truce since February 2002, Prabhakaran urged the majority Sinhalese population to take a collective stand on peace talks.

"We are living in a political void, without war, without a stable peace, without the conditions of normalcy, without an interim or permanent solution to the ethnic conflict," he said.

"Our liberation struggle will be seriously undermined if this political vacuum continues indefinitely," he said while asking President Chandrika Kumaratunga's coalition partners to declare their public stand on talks.

Kumaratunga's junior coalition partner, the Marxist JVP, or People's Liberation Front, has been against any concessions to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and opposes resumption of peace talks based on the rebels' plan for self rule.

The president herself has rejected the LTTE's Interim Self Governing Authority proposal unveiled over a year ago as a stepping stone for a separate state.

In a hard-hitting speech, Prabhakaran said observing a truce for nearly three years and holding peace talks at foreign venues had brought little benefits for the island's Tamil minority.

"You are fully aware that during this period of ceasefire we have been making every endeavour, with sincerity and commitment, to seek a negotiated settlement to the Tamil national question through peaceful means.