President promptly rejects tiger ploy

The LTTE, in utter desperation, declared a unilateral ceasefire, saying it was the only way to end the humanitarian crisis involving thousands of civilians trapped in the narrow tract along Eastern coastline still held by them. But the government interests were otherwise. “Halt in combat operations only facilitates innocent civilians to cross over without harm, but not for the LTTE to resettle for another brutal war,” President Mahinda Rajapaksa said referring to LTTE’s notorious history of unilateral breaches of ceasefires.

President not only rejected the Tiger ploy, but also demanded them to surrender and lay down their weapons. “The Tiger offer is either a last ditch attempt to circumvent a final bloody defeat, or a calculated attempt aimed at exerting international political pressure on the government to suspend combat operations, at least to get a small respite,” war veterans said.

“Now, the tigers are fighting out of uniforms, and it’s hard to distinguish between tigers and civilians. This forced us to slow down offensives for fear of causing harm to civilians,” Brigadier Shavendra Silva, who has been commanding the advancing troops, told journalists.

>> Full Story