Tigers say ban threatens peace

Peace appears to still elude the embattled north

The rebel Tamil Tigers have blamed the Sri Lankan Government for blocking peace efforts by refusing to lift a ban on the organisation.

The talks... will have no credibility or validity if they are held between incompatible, unequal actors

Tamil Tigers

The Tigers said they would not enter into peace negotiations with the government unless the ban was lifted.

The rebels' comments come after the government on Saturday categorically rejected lifting the ban on the Tigers as a precondition to peace talks.

The ban was imposed in 1998 after a bomb attack on the island's most revered Buddhist shrine killed 18 people.

Warning

In a statement issued on Monday, the Tamil Tigers warned the government of "serious consequences" if it did not lift the ban.

"If the government adopts a hardline position and refuses to review its decision on proscription, then it should bear full responsibility for the collapse of the peace efforts and the serious consequences that might arise from its decision," the statement said.

The Tigers want to be treated as equal partners

Earlier this month, Norway's special envoy Erik Solheim met senior Tamil Tiger leaders in rebel-controlled territory to push for peace talks.

But the Tigers said they could not participate in talks without being an equal partner to the government and as the legitimate representative of the Tamil people.

"The talks, as well as the product of talks, will have no credibility or validity if they are held between incompatible, unequal actors, between the so called legal government and a condemned illegal entity," the Tigers said.

War of words

In a statement on Saturday, the government blamed the Tigers for carrying out terrorist attacks and listed a series of examples and high profile assassinations, including that of the former Indian Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, in 1991.

But in response the Tigers said their "armed resistance" was "reactive violence to state terror".

"To list the instances and episodes of this barbaric history (of the government) would run into hundreds of pages of chilling stories of terror and brutality," they said.

The BBC's Colombo correspondent, Frances Harrison, says the war of words is the latest instance of each group publicly blaming the other for the failure of the peace process.