Offer to Tigers 'ridiculous'

2004-03-09 10:38

Colombo - A breakaway faction of the Tamil Tiger rebels on Tuesday rejected a fresh amnesty offer to end their rift that has plunged Sri Lanka into new uncertainty over efforts to end a three-decade-long civil war.

The renegade regional commander of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) discarded the offer as "ridiculous", ending a bid by a Catholic bishop to help resolve the unprecedented split among the rebels.

Breakaway leader V Muralitharan, better known as Karuna, said through an aide that he wanted to avoid bloodshed but repeated his charge that the LTTE's northern-based leadership had ignored Tamils in eastern Sri Lanka.

Diplomats here said the failure to peacefully resolve the standoff could seriously undermine Norwegian-led diplomacy to broker peace.

Developments

Norwegian special envoy Erik Solheim arrived on Monday on a scheduled visit to review the Oslo-brokered truce between troops and the Tigers, but would now have to focus on the new developments as well, diplomats said.

It was not immediately clear if Solheim would meet with Karuna, a move that would amount to recognition of his faction, but the renegade leader said he was prepared to hold talks on a fresh peace accord.

The truce has been in place since February 2002, halting the Tigers' insurgency for a separate Tamil homeland that has claimed more than 60 000 lives since 1972.

- AFP