|
|
Change Your Life! |
Rebels reject government's autonomy offer |
|
News |
|
|
June 24, 2000
COLOMBO (AP) - The government's efforts to end the 17-year-old Tamil separatist war suffered a serious setback Friday with the Tamil Tiger rebels rejecting its offer to join an Interim Council to administer Tamil majority areas.
Sources close to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam said the rebel leadership "mocked" at the government offer. "The proposed Interim Council does not meet even an iota of the aspirations of Tamil Tigers and, therefore, the leadership thinks it is not worth even discussing," the sources said.
The LTTE has said in the past that it would not accept anything less than a separate nation for the minority Tamils. The sources cannot be identified because the LTTE is a banned organization in Sri Lanka and naming them could jeopardize their security.
The rebels are fighting for a homeland for Sri Lanka's 3.2 million minority Tamils. They claim they face widespread discrimination by the majority Sinhalese who comprise 14 million of the island nation's 18.6 million people. The government denies the charge.
The rebels' rejection of the government offer had an immediate fall out. A mainstream Tamil political party, the Tamil United Liberation Front, said it also would not join the Interim Council.
The government plans to set up the council as part of its autonomy plan to win over the moderates among the Tamils and marginalize the militants.
"Without the LTTE, setting up an Interim Council will be counter productive, as such we see no reason to join it," Veerasingham Anandasangaree, vice president of the TULF, told The Associated Press.
"We firmly believe that the LTTE will have to be involved in any efforts to bring peace and we also believe that such efforts should be meaningful and not for window dressing or an eye wash," Anandasangaree said.
President Chandrika Kumaratunga said last week that the LTTE could join the proposed council if it agrees to give up arms.
The LTTE's rejection of the government proposal did not come as a surprise to analysts.
"It was expected," said Jehan Perera, a member of the Presidential Task Force on Ethnic Affairs and National Integration, a body set up last month to advise the government on how best to solve the Tamil conflict.
"The government was wise to open its door to the LTTE, because it shows to the world that the administration wants peace," Perera said.
"But the LTTE is an organization which is fearful to make any political compromise. They believe in guns and politics of blood and not politics of dialogue," he said.
|