The leader of a key Tamil Tiger breakaway group in eastern Sri Lanka says the main organisation's head was never serious about the peace process.
Col Karuna Amman told the BBC that Velupillai Prabhakaran had said peace talks should be dragged out so the rebels could prepare for more fighting.
Col Karuna left the rebels in 2004, seriously weakening them.
Government forces are now taking control of much of the Eastern province in renewed fighting.
Serious blow
In an exclusive interview in a location several hours' drive from his stronghold of Batticaloa, Col Karuna poured scorn on the Tigers' commitment to the now battered ceasefire accord of 2002.
"I was a member of those talks," he said.
"Our eastern children had been taken to the northern fighting zone and sacrificed by Prabhakaran"
"What we were told by [Prabhakaran] was, 'Drag these talks out for about five years, somehow let the time pass by. Meanwhile I will purchase arms and we will be ready for the next stage of fighting.' That was his order."
Col Karuna was once the Tigers' commander in the east, but in 2004 he left with many of his fighters. It was a serious blow to the rebels.
He says he left the rebel movement because disproportionate numbers of cadres from the East, like him, were being sacrificed on the battlefield, while the rebels from the north controlled the organisation.
Col Karuna rarely gives interviews and is almost never seen in public. A marked man, security around Col Karuna is tight.
He denied claims that his men had fought alongside government soldiers against his former comrades.
"It's a wrong thought, we deny that completely," he says.
He also rejected allegations from human rights groups that his Karuna faction had been active in recruiting children.
Election wish
"Definitely if there are people like that in our camps, definitely we'll release them. We would not keep people like that.
"This is also another reason for us to come out of the [Tigers]. Our eastern children had been taken to the northern fighting zone and sacrificed by Prabhakaran.
"We didn't accept that. Our eastern children should study, they should live in freedom."
Col Karuna said he no longer supported an independent homeland for the Tamils in Sri Lanka - the goal for which the Tigers have fought for decades.
"Our aim is to find a solution under one Sri Lanka. What I mean is under a united Sri Lanka," he said.
Col Karuna has formed a political party, the TMBP, and says he intends to contest future provincial and general elections.
"If there is an election, whether it's for a provincial council or a general election, definitely we will contest because we are in the political mainstream," he said.
"At the moment we are equipping people for that. We have started working towards it," he added.
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