Tiger chief slams intnl community, vows to carry on struggle

Colombo, Nov 27 (UNI) The elusive leader of the Tamil Tiger rebels, Velupillai Prabhakaran today blamed the international community for being biased and responsible for the breakdown of the Norwegian-brokered peace process, but vowed that his ''freedom struggle'' would still continue.

Asserting that the involvement of the international community to resolve the Tamil national question 'has been unhelpful', the Tiger chief has said from an unknown location in the Wanni that their failure to condemn unambiguously the military path of the current regime has created the present situation in the island nation.

''The Co-chairs, acting as the guardians of the peace process, have failed in their responsibility. If the Co-chairs do not have a moral obligation to protect peace efforts, what exactly is the purpose of their meeting from time to time in different places ? Is it their intent to assist the Sinhala regime to wipe out the Tamils,'' Prabhakaran has asked in his annual Heroes Day speech.

Accusing the international community that their ''generous military and economic aid and diplomatic efforts to prop up the chauvinistic Sinhala state has encouraged the Sinhala nation further and further along its militaristic path,'' he appealed to them to change their approach.

''Our people firmly expect that at least from now on the international community will take a new approach in relation to our freedom struggle. On this sacred day it is the hope of our people that the international community will cease giving military and economic aid to the Sinhala regime and accept the right to self determination and the sovereignty of the Tamil nation,'' Prabhakaran said.

He said the ruling coalition of President Mahinda Rajapaksa is ''over-confident of its military victory and has shut fast the door for peace.'' ''The Rajapaksa regime is never going to realise that the Tamil national question cannot be resolved by military oppression.

The Sinhala leadership is not going to shed its desire for military supremacy or the Sinhalisation of the Tamil homeland,'' the Tiger chief said.

Describing the defeat of the outfit in the East as a planned strategy, he said ''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 said.

''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, vowing to carry on the struggle until it is achieved,'' Prabhakaran said.

UNI