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Follow IRA's example, Sri Lanka urges Tamil Tigers

Posted on: Friday, 29 July 2005, 05:11 CDT

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels should take their lead from the Irish Republican Army, lay down their weapons and abandon a two-decade armed struggle for self-rule, the island's government said on Friday.

But Northern Ireland and Sri Lanka's civil conflicts are worlds apart -- the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) control a de facto state in the South Asian island's northeast and are locked in a standoff with the military that threatens to rupture a 2002 ceasefire.

"We welcome the announcement of the IRA. We hope the LTTE would also fall in line," government spokesman Nimal Siripala de Silva told reporters.

"We appeal to them, that is the trend in the world in Aceh and (with) the IRA, to give up their arms. That would be the best thing," he added. "It is high time the LTTE followed."

The IRA formally ended its 30-year armed campaign against British rule in Northern Ireland on Thursday and said it would pursue its aims through politics.

The Tigers were not immediately available for comment, but analysts say a return to talks stalled since 2003 aimed at forging lasting peace after a conflict that has already killed over 64,000 people is a long way off, let alone any future push for disarmament.

Dozens of rebel cadres, police, soldiers and civilians have been killed in recent months despite the ceasefire that has given Sri Lanka its longest taste of relative peace since the Tigers' struggle for self-rule began in earnest in 1983.

The military and the Tigers each blame the attacks on the other, and while the rebels have said the ceasefire could disintegrate and rekindle the war, truce monitors say it should hold for now.

Source: REUTERS

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