| Yeah, I'd call threats of war and devastation a pressure tactic... |
A Tamil Tiger threat to resume civil war is a pressure tactic to push the Sri Lankan government to open discussions on their demand for self-rule, analysts and diplomats say, playing down fears of a return to hostilities. Reclusive rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran said on Saturday his feared Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam would have no alternative but to forge ahead with a two-decade war that has killed more than 64,000 people if a months-long deadlock on talks is not broken soon. "I don't see it as an ultimatum. I don't think it's anything to get alarmed about," said Rohan Edrisinha, a political analyst with independent think-tank the Centre for Policy Alternatives in Colombo. "I look at it as the Tigers telling the government to get its act together," he said. "I don't think anyone will deliberately resume hostilities."
In a strongly worded annual address to remember the Tigers' war dead, Prabhakaran said the guerrilla group's patience had reached its limit and accused the government's Marxist coalition ally -- which is fiercely against rebel self-rule -- of blocking chances of peace. "If the government of Sri Lanka rejects our urgent appeal and adopts delaying tactics, perpetuating the suffering of our people, we have no alternative other than to advance the freedom struggle of our nation," he said in his annual policy statement from the rebels' northern stronghold on Saturday. |