COLOMBO (Reuters) - The Tamil Tigers declared on Monday they now saw no other option than to push for an independent state in what analysts said was notice to Sri Lanka's government that renewed civil war will deepen.
Shadowy Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, who had earlier been pushing for a separate homeland for minority Tamils -- short of outright independence -- said Tamils had been cheated by successive majority Sinhalese governments and would be fooled no more. "The uncompromising stance of Sinhala chauvinism has left us with no other option but an independent state for the people of Tamil Eelam," Prabhakaran said in his annual address, emailed by the rebels to Reuters.
"It is now crystal clear that the Sinhala leaders will never put forward a just resolution to the Tamil national question. Therefore, we are not prepared to place our trust in the impossible and walk along the same old futile path," he added.
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 ceasefire, now lying in ruins but which both sides argue still holds on paper.
"We, therefore, ask the international community and the countries of the world that respect justice to recognize our freedom struggle," Prabhakaran added.
President Mahinda Rajapakse has ruled out a separate homeland, but says he is willing to consider widespread devolution of power within a united Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka's two-decade civil has killed more than 67,000 civilians, troops and rebel fighters since 1983, around 3,000 of those so far this year alone.
Iqbal Athas, an analyst with Janes' Defense Weekly, said Prabhakaran's words meant the island should brace for more war.
"He is putting the government on notice of war," Athas said. "By saying that they want an independent state, it is clearly getting away from the peace process."
From financial markets to shopkeepers, diplomats to weary refugees displaced by air raids and battles, all eyes were on the shadowy leader's speech.
Last year, Prabhakaran -- who is revered within the rebel group as "National Leader" -- gave the government a year to find a political solution to the war or face renewed struggle.
In Colombo, troops tightened security and checked cars and shops on Monday amid fears of renewed attacks on the capital during Prabhakaran's Heroes' Day speech to commemorate more than 18,700 slain rebel fighters.
Witnesses in Tiger territory said roads had been decked out with red Tiger flags emblazoned with roaring golden tigers and crossed rifles and pictures of Prabhakaran in characteristic Tiger-striped fatigues and cap, sidearm at the ready.
A new round of peace talks broke down a month ago, and many fear that a war that has killed more than 67,000 people since 1983 will escalate and punish the $23 billion economy. In the northern army-held Jaffna peninsula where 500,000 residents, almost all of them Tamils, are cut off from the rest of the island by rebel lines and survive on rations brought in by sea, many residents fear they will be displaced yet again.
"We have gone back to the pre-2002 (ceasefire) era," said 42-year-old Pragash Shunmuganathan, who had to close his video and television repair shop in Jaffna for lack of customers as economic hardships in the besieged peninsula bite.
"Today we are starving. There is no food, no employment," he added. "War seems to be the only remedy."
(Additional reporting by Ranga Sirilal)
Monday, November 27, 2006
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