SRI LANKA:Sri Lanka's government has rejected a call by separatist Tamil Tiger rebels to revive the 2002 ceasefire agreement a week after Colombo officially withdrew from the truce, spawning a situation almost certain to revert to war.
"Considering the ground realities, it [ the rebels' offer] looks hilarious," said federal minister and government defence spokesman, Keheliya Rambukwella.
Mr Rambukwella accused the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who began fighting in 1983 for an independent Tamil state, of using the Norway-brokered ceasefire to rearm and regroup in order to continue their terrorist activities.
The LTTE claims discrimination at the hands of the majority Sinhalese community.
Tamils constitute about 12 per cent of Sri Lanka's population of 19 million.
"We are shocked and disappointed that the government of Sri Lanka has unilaterally abrogated the ceasefire agreement," said B Nadesan, the head of the LTTE's political wing.
A day earlier, the LTTE had said it was ready to implement every clause of the truce, which formally becomes invalid on January 16th, but threatened a return to a civil war that has claimed more than 70,000 lives in the past 25 years.
Widespread violence has already broken out since the government withdrew from the ceasefire on January 3rd. At least 204 people - 195 rebels, six soldiers and three civilians - have been killed.
These casualty figures are impossible to verify independently, however, as no journalists or neutral observers are allowed into the wartorn regions.
Both sides routinely exaggerate the death toll of the other side while downplaying their own fatalities in a conflict situation that remains nebulous.
Despite the ceasefire being technically in place, near-daily ambushes, assassinations and air strikes have killed some 5,000 people in the past two years.
Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa has vowed to step up his government's military campaign against the LTTE, confident of defeating the rebels.
By withdrawing from the ceasefire agreement, the government has opted for the single-track approach of a military solution to the highly complex insurgency. The Sri Lanka donor co-chairs of the peace process - the US, Japan, EU and Norway - have voiced their opposition to this strategy.