COLOMBO, Nov 27: The Tamil minority of Sri Lanka must have their own independent state, rebel chief Velupillai Prabhakaran declared on Monday effectively ending the island's peace process.

In his annual policy speech, delivered from a secret hideout, the Tamil Tiger leader accused the Colombo government of waging military and economic war against Tamils and said they were left “with no other option but an independent state”. The declaration went back on a 2002 pledge to accept a federal solution under which the 2.5 million Tamils would enjoy broad autonomy.

That commitment had opened the way for a ceasefire and years of Norwegian-brokered peace talks which collapsed in Geneva last month.

However, President Mahinda Rajapakse, “by openly advocating attacks on our positions, has effectively buried the CFA (Ceasefire Agreement),” the head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) charged.

He said Tamils faced “arrests, imprisonment, and torture, rape and sexual harassment, murders, disappearance, shelling, aerial bombing,” while “military offensives are continuing unchecked”. Prabhakaran stopped short of declaring independence, but made it clear the peace process was over with the Sinhalese nationalist-led government elected a year ago.

“It is now crystal clear that the Sinhala leaders will never put forward a just resolution to the Tamil national question,” he said.

“Therefore, we are not prepared to place our trust in the impossible and walk along the same old futile path.” Prabhakaran suggested the conflict would resume and urged international recognition of the “freedom struggle at this historic time when the Tamils are recommencing their journey on the path of freedom”.

“He (Rajapakse) rejected our final call. Instead, he intensified the war,” while talking about peace, the LTTE chief said on Monday from rebel-held territory in the north.

The policy speech was keenly-awaited by Sri Lankan leaders as well as foreign capitals after last year's deadline and an upsurge in violence that has killed over 3,400 people in 2006.

“I would read it as end of the peace process,” said a western diplomat close to the negotiations. “He has set the stage to justify any attacks in the future,” Retired Sri Lankan brigadier general Vipul Boteju said the government's lack of a political proposal to solve the conflict could now lead to more bloodshed.

“We don't have a political solution and unless we have a package for the Tamils, the LTTE cannot be isolated from the Tamil community.

“Prabhakaran has clearly ended the peace process.”—AFP