Tamil rebel leader calls truce ‘defunct’

The leader of the Tamil Tigers rebel group blamed the Sri Lankan government Monday for rendering a 4-year-old cease-fire “defunct” and said his organization had no choice but to press for an independent homeland for the island nation’s minority Tamils.

In his yearly speech, Velupillai Prabhakaran, head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, lambasted Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse as a chauvinistic hawk bent on subduing his group militarily while pretending to talk peace.

“He intensified the war, on the one hand, with the view to destroy our movement and, on the other hand, he is talking about finding a peaceful resolution. This dual war and peace approach is fundamentally flawed,” Prabhakaran said in his address, adding that the Sri Lankan government’s alleged strategy had “effectively buried” the 2002 cease-fire agreement between the two sides.

But the rebel chief stopped short of declaring a formal withdrawal from the truce, which both parties have insisted still holds despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

Over the last year, the island nation off the southeastern coast of India has relapsed into civil war in all but name, with near-daily attacks and reprisals that have killed at least 3,000 people, the majority of them civilians. Tiger fighters and Sri Lankan troops have waged their ethnic conflict on land and sea in the north and east, where the insurgents want to establish a homeland for Tamils, away from the political and military domination of the majority Sinhalese.

The elusive Prabhakaran, whose group has been classified as a terrorist organization by the U.S. government and the European Union, said an independent Tamil nation would be the only acceptable solution, abandoning a previous position that could have allowed for greater Tamil autonomy within the Sri Lankan state.

“It is now crystal clear that the Sinhala leaders will never put forward a just resolution to the Tamil national question,” he said. “Therefore, we are not prepared to place our trust in the impossible and walk along the same old futile path.”

Government officials say they remain committed to the peace process and denounced the speech as bellicose posturing. Recent attempts at peace talks have foundered.

Whether the emphatic rhetoric on both sides presages an upsurge in violence is hard to tell. Clashes already have increased, including aerial bombardment and artillery fire by government troops and assassinations and suicide attacks by the well-armed, fearsome Tamil Tigers. Last month, suspected rebel bombers hit a military convoy in central Sri Lanka, killing about 100 sailors.

On Monday, before Prabhakaran’s speech, the military said it had sunk a rebel boat stocked with weapons off Sri Lanka’s west coast.

About 65,000 people have perished in the conflict over the last 23 years. Thousands more have fled to neighboring India and other countries.

Observers blame the rebels for breaching the truce. Rights groups accuse the Tigers of forcibly recruiting children and intimidating the Tamil populace.

But the government also has come under criticism for its aggressive military campaign, allegedly turning a blind eye to atrocities by its troops and doing little to address Tamil complaints of discrimination and neglect.

Late last month, officials unveiled a seven-point discussion plan that they said would foster dialogue with the rebels on issues of economic development and greater autonomy.

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henry.chu@latimes.com