COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers appealed yesterday for international action to halt a major offensive against their shrinking fiefdom, but the island’s military rejected any talk of a truce.
With rebel forces cornered in the northeast of the island by a massive attack by government forces, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) urged foreign powers to step in and arrange an immediate truce.
The LTTE said the United Nations, United States, the European Union, Japan and one-time peace broker Norway had to pressure the Sri Lankan government into accepting a cease-fire “so the miseries of the Tamils ... are brought to an end.”
“We also wish to inform the international community that we are ready to discuss, cooperate, and work together in all their efforts to bring an immediate cease-fire,” LTTE political chief B. Nadesan said in a statement.
But the Sri Lankan military said it would accept nothing short of complete surrender and disarmament.
“Our position is that they must lay down arms and surrender,” said military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara. “There is no shift in our position.”
The government withdrew from a Norwegian-brokered truce at the start of last year, after accusing the Tigers of using a peace process only to rearm and consolidate their de facto mini-state in the north of the island.
European Union foreign ministers meeting in Brussels renewed their call for a cease-fire to allow aid in and civilians out of the conflict zone, but made no mention of stepping in to arrange terms. “The EU is deeply concerned about the evolving humanitarian crisis and vast number of internally displaced people,” they said.
