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Sri Lanka
Vacate our land or face war, Tigers tell govt
2006-09-09
Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers told the government on Friday to immediately withdraw from a rebel stronghold it seized this week or face war.
I thought they had a pretty good war going already.
The army captured the territory on the southern edge of the strategic Trincomalee harbour in the northeast of the country on Monday after days of artillery battles. It was the first major capture of territory by either side since a 2002 ceasefire. "We perceive the Sri Lankan armed forces occupying our territory as tantamount to a declaration of war," S Puleedevan, head of the rebels' peace secretariat, told Reuters. He said the Tigers would launch a counter-attack and "evict" the army from Sampur if it did not withdraw immediately, adding that the ceasefire agreement was "in tatters".

"The conflict is already widening all over the northeast, the Tamil homeland," Puleedevan said by satellite phone. "So far, we have tried very hard to maintain restraint, not to launch offensive attacks, but there are limits."

Until now, and despite heavy fighting in recent weeks, the government and the rebels had been insisting that they continued to stand by the terms of a 2002 truce. But the foes blame each other for trying to force a full-scale return to a war that has killed more than 65,000 people since 1983.
Posted by:Fred

#1  They've got to be kidding. Wasn't it the Tamils who compromised the peace treaty by recommencing the bomb attacks? Government intervention was clearly secondary to the resumption of LTT violence.
Posted by: Elmomosh Sholush4208   2006-09-09 23:17  

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