SRI LANKA: The leader of Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers has given the clearest indication yet that the rebels intend to give up their demand for a separate state, saying yesterday that he was willing to settle for regional autonomy.
However, in a speech to mark "Heroes' Day", honouring rebels killed in the 19-year conflict, guerrilla leader Velupillai Prabhakaran also warned that the group would not yet renounce violence in spite of participating in peace talks.
"If our demand for regional self-rule, based on the right to internal self-determination, is rejected, we have no alternative but to secede and form an independent state," he said.
The Tamil Tigers have been fighting since 1984 for a separate state for minority Tamils, who they say are discriminated against by the island's majority Sinhalese.
An estimated 64,000 people have been killed in the conflict, including almost 18,000 rebels.
"It is our deepest desire that the current peace talks, facilitated by Norway, should succeed, and all the communities living on the island should coexist in harmony," the reclusive guerrilla leader said.
"If a reasonable settlement to the Tamil national question could be realised by peaceful means, we will make every endeavour, with honesty and sincerity, to pursue that path."