By Xinhua
Colombo : The Sri Lankan government said Friday it will continue its military operations against Tamil Tiger rebels despite the latter’s announcement that it would abide by the ceasefire agreement signed with the government in 2002.
Defence spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella told reporters that government troops will “liberate” the whole country from terrorism.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), fighting for over two decades for a Tamil homeland, said in a statement Thursday that “it is ready to implement every clause of the CFA (ceasefire agreement) and respect it 100 percent,” even as the government unilaterally abrogated the Norwegian-brokered 2002 ceasefire agreement.
The government’s decision on Jan 2 to withdraw from the ceasefire agreement, which takes effect from Jan 16, followed an attack on an army bus by suspected LTTE rebels that killed 4 people and injured 24.
Both the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE have accused each other of blatant violations of the truce.
The government and the LTTE held eight rounds of talks after signing the ceasefire agreement, but failed to find a political solution to the island’s long drawn-out ethnic conflict.