Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebel leader vowed on Thursday to carry on with his armed struggle against government troops for an autonomy but he also wished to find a peaceful solution to the ethnic issue.
Making his annual hero's day speech in the island's north Velupillai Prabakaran said his community does not want war and it does not favor violence.
In his speech, published on the official website of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Prabakaran accused the Sri Lankan government headed by the majority Sinhalese of continuing military offensives against minority Tamils.
"Pooling together all its military resources and arsenal, and with all its national wealth to buttress it, the racist Sinhala state has waged a fierce war on our land," Prabakran said.
His speech came as the government on Wednesday announced that the troops have reached Kilinochchi, the rebels' administrative center in the current military thrust.
Referring to the current military action, the rebel leader said his territory is faced with intense war as never before but his organization was not against peaceful negotiations.
"Even though the armed struggle was thrust on us by inevitable needs, yet we wish to stop the war and seek a peaceful resolution to the national question of our people," said the rebel leader.
He urged Tamils living outside Sri Lanka to help towards liberating the Tamils, saying the LTTE will continue its struggle "till alien sinhala occupation of our land is removed".
The troops and the LTTE are currently engaged in fierce fighting in the north, after the government claimed in July 2007 that the entire Eastern Province had been liberated.
Claiming discrimination at the hands of Sinhalese-dominated governments, the LTTE has been fighting for an independent Tamil homeland in the north and east since the mid-1980s, resulting in the killing of more than 70,000 people.
Source:Xinhua
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