November 28, 2007	Wednesday	Ziqa’ad 17, 1428

COLOMBO, Nov 27: The leader of the Tamil Tiger rebels declared on Tuesday that Sri Lankan peace efforts were a waste of time and vowed to strike back at the island’s “genocidal” government.

In an annual policy speech delivered from a jungle hideout in his northern fiefdom, Velupillai Prabhakaran launched a furious attack against the island’s Sinhalese majority — setting the stage for the island’s return to all-out war.

“The Sinhala nation is trying to destroy the Tamil nation,” the reclusive head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said in the speech, a text of which was distributed by the rebels.

“It is unleashing unthinkable violence against another people. It only desires to find a solution to the Tamil question through military might and oppression,” he said.

He added the current government “is never going to realise that the Tamil national question cannot be resolved by military oppression.

“All the Sinhala political parties are essentially chauvinistic and anti-Tamil. To expect a political solution... is political naivety,” Prabhakaran said.

The comments underscored that the Tigers, who lost their chief negotiator in a government bombing raid earlier this month, see no point in future dealings with Norwegian peace brokers trying to secure a return to a now-moribund 2002 truce.

Prabhakaran, who turned 53 on Monday, said the Nordic peace watchdog had in any case “covered its eyes, tied its hands behind its back and went to sleep.” He also lashed out at countries who class the LTTE as “terrorists” — such as the United States and European Union members.

In a speech that can be summed up as a declaration of infinite and all-out war, Prabhakaran promised his jungle army would strike back after a difficult year in their 35-year-old quest for an independent Tamil homeland.

The LTTE fighters were ejected from the east of the island in July, and the government has said it has sunk the bulk of the rebels’ fabled fleet of gun-running ships in a string of naval clashes.

But the rotund rebel leader said Colombo was “overconfident of its military victory” in the east and that successive Sri Lankan governments have “consistently underestimated us.” “The Sinhala military has fallen yet again into the net we spread and it is now forced to commit large numbers of troops to rule land without people. Caught in a territorial trap, it will soon be forced to face the serious consequences of its misguided ambitions,” he warned.

Just as the speech was about to be broadcast, government war planes “flattened” the Tamil Tigers’ radio station, killing five employees and four civilians, the LTTE said in a statement.

A Tamil Tiger official, however, told AFP by telephone that the rebels were still able to broadcast the speech to the north and the Tamil diaspora overseas — who are a key source of funds — using “alternative arrangements.” The guerrillas also said government commandos were active in LTTE areas, and set off a roadside bomb Tuesday killing 11 school children. Such attacks in the past have been followed by attacks against civilians in the south.

With the Tigers maintaining the element of surprise, Prabhakaran gave no details on dates or targets on how he planned to strike back.

Observers, however, said his frequent references to a “Sinhala people” who were “immersed in the poison of racism” suggested LTTE suicide bombers may resume attacks against civilians after a period of mainly hitting military targets.

“Thousands of our fighters are standing ready to fight with determination for our just goal of freedom, and we will overcome the hurdles before us and liberate our motherland,” Prabhakaran said.

On Monday the island’s powerful defence secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapakse, said that his forces were now going all out to kill Prabhakaran and recapture the north.

Prabhakaran said this was “a war of genocide,” and warned that “those who plan to destroy the Tamil nation will in the end be forced to face their own destruction.”—AFP