By Xinhua,
Colombo : The Sri Lankan government said Friday that Tamil Tiger rebels’ overtures to India will not find accommodation as the regional super power is standing firmly against terrorism.
Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama told the parliament on Friday that the New Delhi High Court recently expressed support to the Indian government’s decision to ban the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and ruled that “unless the ban of the LTTE continues, acts of aggression on Indian soil are likely to occur.”
The foreign minister urged the LTTE to lay down arms, renounce terrorism and enter the democratic path, in order to be part of the political process and evolve a sustainable solution to the ethnic issue.
Bogollagama’s remarks came as a reaction to LTTE leader Velupillai Prabakaran’s policy speech made on Thursday saying that the LTTE wishes to renew its good relationship with India in the fighting for minority Tamils’ rights.
Making his annual “Hero’s Day” speech in the island’s north Prabakaran said his community does not want war and it does not favor violence.
Prabakaran said “great changes are taking place in India” and it “gives us courage to seek renewal of our relationship with the Indian super power.”
The rebel leader asked the Indian government to take constructive actions to remove the ban “which remains a stumbling block for the good relationship between India and the LTTE.”
The Indian government banned the LTTE as a terrorist organization because of its murderous activities, including the killing of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
However, some politicians in the southern Indian state of TamilNadu, the home to some 60 million Tamils, have called the central government to bring a ceasefire in Sri Lanka which is witnessing a bloody war between government troops and the LTTE.
Sri Lanka’s government troops and the LTTE are currently engaged in fierce fighting in the north, after the government claimed in July 2007 that the entire Eastern Province had been liberated.
Claiming discrimination at the hands of Sinhalese-dominated governments, the LTTE has been fighting for an independent Tamil homeland in the north and east since the mid-1980s, resulting in the killing of more than 70,000 people.