Date:28/11/2005 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2005/11/28/stories/2005112813940100.htm

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LTTE seeks "reasonable political framework" by next year

V.S. Sambandan

To wait and observe President Rajapakse's approach; warns of intensifying struggle if appeal is rejected

In his Heroes' Day speech on Sunday from an undisclosed location in Northern Sri Lanka, LTTE supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran said Sri Lanka's new President, Mahinda Rajapakse, "has not grasped the fundamentals ... [of] the Tamil national question." — Photo: LTTE handout

COLOMBO: Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) leader V. Prabhakaran on Sunday made an "urgent and final appeal" to the new Sri Lankan Government to "come forward soon with a reasonable political framework that will satisfy the political aspirations of the Tamil people" by "next year."

If this "urgent appeal" was rejected, his group would "intensify" its "struggle for self-determination" and "national liberation" to "establish self-government in our homeland."

In his "Heroes' Day" speech, Mr. Prabhakaran said the LTTE would "wait and observe" the new President Mahinda Rajapakse's approach to the peace process "for some time." This was because "President Rajapakse is considered a realist, committed to pragmatic politics."

The President, he said, "has not grasped the fundamentals, the basic concepts underlying the Tamil national question." On Mr. Rajapakse's new peace policy, he said, "The distance between him and us is vast."

Sinhala-Buddhist regime

He characterised the new Government as "essentially a Sinhala-Buddhist regime," in which the "national minorities are not represented," and the new government "has been elected by the Sinhala majority specifically with their voting power."

It may be recalled that the LTTE expressed its "disinterest" in the November 17 presidential poll. This was followed by a "boycott" call by its front organisations, resulting in a low turnout from the Tamil majority northern and eastern voters.

Mr. Prabhakaran said the recent presidential poll and the change in governance "effected by the Tamil boycott have created a wide rift, politically, between the Tamil and Sinhala nations."

The "Heroes' Day" speech, delivered annually from an undisclosed location in rebel-held northern Sri Lanka, was released to the press by the LTTE.

The speech was preceded by a build-up in Sri Lanka's northern and eastern districts in the past few days, with sections of the media announcing the LTTE's "national symbols of Tamil Eelam." For the past few months, the LTTE's front organisations have been organising "Tamil Resurgence" events in the northern and eastern districts.

In last year's speech, Mr. Prabhakaran said the rebels had reached the "borderlines of patience and expectations," and asked the Government to resume unconditional talks based on its proposal for an Interim Self-Governing Authority.