Lankan rebels threaten use of suicide bombers if war erupts
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
New Delhi, June 22, IRNA
Sri Lanka-LTTE-Threats
The political chief of the Tamil Tiger rebels, S P Tamilselvan, said that his group would use all means necessary, including suicide bombers, if full-scale war erupts in the island nation.
Tamilselvan said that if war was let loose by the government on the Tamil people, "we definitely will make use of all the weapons in our arsenal, not only weapons, but manpower," Doordarshan News said here.
Asked if that would include suicide bombers, he said that "in facing war...of course we will use all our resources."
His comments came amid weeks of increasing violence which the LTTE has blamed on the Sri Lankan military and other groups opposed to the Tigers.
The Tigers have eschewed any responsibility in the violence in areas under government control.
Tamilselvan called the 2002 ceasefire that ended nearly 20 years of combat "a dead letter," adding "it is just a peace of paper that has no meaning at all."
However, Tamilselvan said that the Tigers were willing to sit down again for peace talks as long as the government allowed the Tigers' central committee, its main decisionmaking body, to gather safely from a series of scattered guerilla bases across the island to talk about the situation.
He said the escalating violence was the fault of the government, pro-government political parties and a Tiger faction that has broken away from the main group.
He also warned that full-scale war would be bloody.
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