The Sri Lankan government yesterday rejected a call for a separate truce with a new Tamil Tiger faction that broke away from the main guerrilla group, giving Lanka's fragile peace process one of its toughest challenge since a 2002 cease-fire.
The Tigers' eastern commander pulled his 6,000 fighters away from the 15,000-strong army in a unprecedented dispute with the northern-based top leader over his demands that the eastern region send recruits to the north.
The breakaway commander, Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan, also known as Karuna, approached the government Thursday for a truce apart from the one the Tigers signed with the government in February 2002.
But a top Defense Ministry official said yesterday the government rejected the idea.
"We cannot enter into an agreement with another group when the government already has an agreement with the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTT)," Defense Secretary Ciril Herath said. "We have no such idea at the moment ... we have to watch the situation."
On Thursday, Muralitharan said his grievances with top rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran also included allegations that the Tigers' northern cadres are favored over eastern cadres for positions in the group's administrative wing.
"The peace process has entered the greatest period of uncertainty because of the unexpected and major destabilization of the LTT," said Jehan Perera, a top political analyst of the National Peace Council, an independent think tank.
Norway-brokered peace talks between the government and the rebels have been stalled since last April for various reasons, the latest a power struggle between Sri Lanka's president and prime minister.
However, any hopes of a revival have now been thrown into limbo with this unprecedented split in the rebel organization.
Muralitharan said he had not yet decided if he wanted to participate at peace negotiations as a separate group.
"It's only after having discussions with Norway that we will be able to disclose our future role," he said.
The rebel leader had been one of the four rebel negotiators at peace talks held in Bangkok, Norway, Berlin and Japan since September 2002.
"It's important to have good dialogue with Norway. I strongly hope that we can have a good settlement for people in the east through means of negotiations," he said, dressed in military fatigues and seated under a Kubuk tree.
Prabhakaran signed the 2002 cease-fire with Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, halting a 19-year civil war that killed nearly 65,000 people.
"The defense ministry has responded in a cautious and responsible way, strictly adhering to the spirit of the existing cease-fire agreement," said Jehan Perera, a top political analyst, about the ministry's response.
Muralitharan said his group will respect the existing truce until it can sign a new one.
Any move to sign a separate pact with a breakaway group is likely to anger the main rebel movement and threaten the island's fragile cease-fire.
The split is the biggest blow to the rebel group since it began its insurrection in 1983. Prabhakaran is previously known to have ruthlessly crushed any dissension or challenges to his leadership.
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
CYBERSCAM: Anne, an interior decorator with mental health problems, spent a year and a half believing she was communicating with Brad Pitt and lost US$855,259 A French woman who revealed on TV how she had lost her life savings to scammers posing as Brad Pitt has faced a wave of online harassment and mockery, leading the interview to be withdrawn on Tuesday. The woman, named as Anne, told the Seven to Eight program on the TF1 channel how she had believed she was in a romantic relationship with the Hollywood star, leading her to divorce her husband and transfer 830,000 euros (US$855,259). The scammers used fake social media and WhatsApp accounts, as well as artificial intelligence image-creating technology to send Anne selfies and other messages
RSS