The Ceylon News

In its latest attempt to help end the ethnic problem embroiling the embattled Sri Lanka, India has again asked the Tamil Tigers to lay down arms and come to the negotiating table with the island nation's government.

"No government will have a dialogue with an outfit which refuses to give up arms. LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam)'s willingness will pave the way for the Indian government to impress upon the island government to declare a cease-fire," Indian Home Minister P Chidambaram told a public meeting in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu Sunday night.

Explaining concern over the loss of civilian lives in the fighting between LTTE and government forces, Chidambaram said that a permanent solution to the vexed issue could be arrived at on the basis of the 1987 Indo-Sri Lanka accord.

The Indian Home Minister also wanted Sri Lanka to suspend its military operations to facilitate such a dialogue and said that out of 4 million Tamils who are spread throughout Sri Lanka, and only 1.3 million Tamils reside in the north part and so LTTE's claim of being as a representative of the entire Tamil community cannot be accepted.

He said that India's facilitation of the declaration of a 48-hour cease-fire by the Lankan Government for allowing the civilians to move to safer places from the war zone, the LTTE had not utilized the opportunity to stop the ethnic war.

The Indo-Sri Lanka Peace Accord was an accord signed in Colombo on July 29, 1987, between Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and President J.R. Jayewardene of Sri Lanka.

The accord was expected to resolve the ongoing Sri Lankan civil war. Under the terms of the agreement, Colombo agreed to a devolution of power to the provinces the Sri Lankan troops were withdraw to their barracks in the north, the Tamil rebels were to disarm.

Sri Lankan government troops have overwhelmed most parts of the LTTE's held territories in northern Sri Lanka.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has been urged by a grouping of the Tamil diaspora to halt military operations for a while to help civilians trapped in the Tamil Tiger zone to escape.

The Tamil Forum for Peace has asked Rajapaksa to 'unilaterally declare an immediate cessation of hostilities for a specified period to enable safe passage to the innocents trapped in the small area under (the) control' of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

'We also call upon the international community to exert pressure on LTTE to release the civilians it is forcibly holding as hostages,' it added.

The appeal follows reports of heavy casualties the Tamil civilian population has suffered in a small area of Sri Lanka's Mullaitivu district still held by the LTTE.

'The LTTE may be holding them for their own safety and may be ready to sacrifice them for propaganda purposes to turn international opinion against your government,' the statement said.

But it added that 'the safety of all civilians trapped in the fighting zone is paramount and necessary and saving their lives is the only morally right thing to do at this juncture'.

The statement added: 'Such a move on your part will certainly help to create the belief that even as you are fighting the Tigers, (the war) is not directed at the Tamil community and (you have) the humanitarian concerns and sufferings of the Tamil civilians uppermost in your mind.'

Sri Lanka's elusive rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran is still on the island and has been preparing his Tamil Tiger fighters to launch last-ditch counter attacks, a news report said Sunday.

Prabhakaran, 54, and his eldest son Charles Anthony have blended in with about 100,000 civilians trapped in the conflict zone, the state-run Sunday Observer said.

The report said two guerrillas arrested last month disclosed that their leader had not fled despite widespread speculation he had escaped by sea.

"The Tiger leader and his son are still living among the civilians in Puthukkudiriruppu and are engaged in making more and more terror plans to reverse the military victories," the Observer quoted the two rebels as saying.

Last month, Sri Lankan military commanders said Prabhakaran may have left the island as his retreating forces were driven back into a small area of jungle.

Sri Lanka's navy has stepped up patrols along the island's north-eastern coast to track any attempts by rebel leaders to escape, while India and Malaysia have put ports on alert.