COLOMBO, April 8: Tamil Tiger rebels have warned that they will use their own boats to transport guerillas, risking clashes with Sri Lanka’s navy, after the government refused to airlift them to a crucial meeting, a pro-rebel report said. The Tigers’ political wing chief S.P Thamilselvan wrote to Norway’s ambassador Hans Brattskar that senior rebel commanders are unable to travel to their main base for a crucial meeting with the leadership before peace talks with the government in Geneva later this month.

The ‘LTTE leadership’s meeting with the field commanders is an absolute necessity to maintain the integrity of the ceasefire agreement’, pro-rebel TamilNet Web site quoted from Mr Thamilselvan’s letter to Brattskar.

“We are now left with the alternative of making our own sea transport, conscious of the risks that would ensue in any possible confrontations with the Sri Lanka navy that would put the ceasefire agreement into grave risk,” he said. —AP