Chandrika: Tamils preparing for war

Lankan troops on alert once again

“The LTTE is once again preparing for war,” presidential spokesman Harim Peiris said, referring to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, also called Tamil Tigers.

   

Peiris said recent events, including the murders of military informants and continued recruitment by the Tigers, was similar to what happened when the rebels broke the last truce in 1995.

   

“There was a series of events and the repetition of those are quite frightening,” he told a news conference.

   

Peiris said the government, elected separately from Kumaratunga and which is headed by political rival Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had ignored the warning signs.

   

“Military preparedness and national security of the country have been compromised,” he said.

 

Tigers ready

   

Peiris was speaking a day after chief Tiger spokesman, Anton Balasingham, said the LTTE would resume stalled talks to end the two-decade war.

 

The talks would commence after the government made a proposal for an interim administration for the island’s war-torn north and east, Balasingham said.

 

The Tamil Tigers and the government’s security forces are under a Norwegian-brokered ceasefire since February 2002.

 

The Tigers have fought an armed rebellion since 1982 for a separate nation “Eelam”, comprising the Tamil-majority areas of the north and the east.