Tamil Tigers 'committed to peace'
From CNN Correspondent Kasra Naji
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Some 65,000 people have lost their lives in the 20 years of war over a homeland in Sri Lanka for the Tamil minority.
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KILINOCHCHI, Sri Lanka (CNN) -- In a pitch for a new interim government in the north, a Sri Lankan rebel leader said Tamil separatists do not plan to go back to war despite walking away from peace talks with the government last month.
"Not for one moment do we think that there is a military solution," said Sinniah Paramu Tamilselvan, the leader of the political wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). "We are highly committed to the peace process and a negotiated settlement."
His comments came at a rare news conference in the town of Kilinochchi in the rebel-held territory in northern Sri Lanka.
Last month, the seventh round of peace talks did not take place after the rebels complained that many of the decisions -- designed to alleviate hardship among the Tamils -- taken at earlier rounds had not been implemented.
On Wednesday, as a precondition for getting back to the negotiating table, the rebels demanded that an interim administration be set up in the country's north and east where the rebels have staked their claim.
Tamilselvan said the new proposal was the result of "a new thinking" on the part of the rebels.
"It had been necessary to do some new thinking, " he said, adding that the six rounds of peace talks since last September had been "a waste of time."
Billions of dollars are at stake at an all important aid-pledging conference that the government of Japan has scheduled for June 9 and 10 in Tokyo. The conference is seen as a way of strengthening the peace process by aiding with the reconstruction of Sri Lanka.
"A demonstration of serious intention of the government to agree to our proposal will be adequate for the LTTE to return to peace talks and take part in the Tokyo conference," Tamilselvan said.
For the government, agreeing to what is in effect handing over the administration of northern and eastern to the rebels is highly controversial.
Opposition parties and hard-line nationalist groups have already accused the government of giving too many concessions to the rebels.
In addition, setting up such an interim administration for the Tamils may require a change in the Sri Lankan constitution -- something the government would need a two-thirds majority in parliament to do and a majority it does not enjoy.
