S Lanka rejects Tamil rebels' truce offer
Wednesday, 25 February 2009
COLOMBO, Feb 24 (AP): Sri Lanka's government rejected a call by Tamil rebels for a ceasefire, saying the militants were trying to "save their miserable skins" in the face of imminent defeat and must surrender unconditionally.
The Tamil Tiger rebels have lost most of their strongholds to government forces and are trapped on a sliver of land in the northeast along with tens of thousands of civilians. The government says it will soon take the remaining rebel territory.
"We are ready to discuss, cooperate, and work together in all their efforts to bring an immediate ceasefire and work towards a political settlement," the Tamil Tigers' political chief Balasingham Nadesan wrote in a letter Monday to the United Nations, which also was sent to Britain, Japan, Norway and the United States.
But Nadesan rejected international calls for the rebels to lay down their arms, saying the weapons "are the protective shield of the Tamil people and their tool for political liberation."
President Mahinda Rajapaksa has said his government will only accept an unconditional surrender.
"Instead of surrendering as the entire international community and the Sri Lankan government has called them to do, (the rebels) are calling the very people who have asked them to surrender, to save their miserable skins," Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona said Monday in response to the rebel letter.
The two sides agreed to a cease-fire in 2002 that many had hoped would be the start of a peace process to reach a political compromise and end the civil war that has plagued this country since 1983 and killed more than 70,000 people.
But peace talks broke down and new violence flared three years ago. In 2008, the government officially scrapped the ceasefire agreement and pledged to destroy the rebel group.
The Tamil Tiger rebels have lost most of their strongholds to government forces and are trapped on a sliver of land in the northeast along with tens of thousands of civilians. The government says it will soon take the remaining rebel territory.
"We are ready to discuss, cooperate, and work together in all their efforts to bring an immediate ceasefire and work towards a political settlement," the Tamil Tigers' political chief Balasingham Nadesan wrote in a letter Monday to the United Nations, which also was sent to Britain, Japan, Norway and the United States.
But Nadesan rejected international calls for the rebels to lay down their arms, saying the weapons "are the protective shield of the Tamil people and their tool for political liberation."
President Mahinda Rajapaksa has said his government will only accept an unconditional surrender.
"Instead of surrendering as the entire international community and the Sri Lankan government has called them to do, (the rebels) are calling the very people who have asked them to surrender, to save their miserable skins," Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona said Monday in response to the rebel letter.
The two sides agreed to a cease-fire in 2002 that many had hoped would be the start of a peace process to reach a political compromise and end the civil war that has plagued this country since 1983 and killed more than 70,000 people.
But peace talks broke down and new violence flared three years ago. In 2008, the government officially scrapped the ceasefire agreement and pledged to destroy the rebel group.