Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers appealed Monday for international action to halt a major offensive against their shrinking territory, 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.
| "Hurry up! We're getting killed here!" |
"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 ceasefire," 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 they must lay down arms and surrender," said military spokesman Brigadier 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 re-arm and consolidate their de facto mini-state in the north of the island.
Subsequent fighting has seen the LTTE lose control over nearly all their territory, including their one-time political capital of Kilinochchi and main military base of Mullaittivu. The Tigers, who are fighting for an independent ethnic Tamil homeland on the Sinhalese-majority island, are now hemmed into a narrow strip of coastal jungle.
The government has vowed to completely defeat the Tigers by April, when the country marks the traditional Sinhala and Tamil New Year.
The fighting has stoked concern for tens of thousands of civilians trapped in the conflict zone, and the government has accused the rebels of holding Tamil civilians as human shields.
The LTTE statement, however, charged that dozens of people were being killed and wounded daily in the relentless bombardment of rebel territory and rejected calls for it to disarm.
"The world should take note that calls for the LTTE to lay down its arms and surrender is not helpful for resolving the conflict," said the statement. "The protection of the Tamil people is dependent on the arms of the LTTE," the Tigers said.
"When a permanent political solution is reached for the Tamil people with the support and the guarantee of the international community, the situation will arise where there will be no need for the arms of the LTTE."
The rebels also appealed for international recognition of their cause. "The international community ... must re-examine our point that an independent state is the only permanent solution to the Tamil-Sinhala conflict," the statement said.
EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels renewed their call for a ceasefire 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," the group of foreign ministers said.
The government pushed on for outright victory Monday, saying its troops had encircled the village of Puthukkudiriruppu from where the Tigers launched suicide air attacks Friday.