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by Walter Jayawardhana reporting from Los Angeles

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam directly appealed to the voters of Sri Lanka to cast their ballots for the United National Party on December 5 elections and warned of severe consequences in the event of the failure to do so.

The terrorist group also known as the Tamil Tigers gave this ultimatum in a leader editorial published in their official organ, The Tamil Guardian.

The editorial published in the November 28 issue of the newspaper said that Sri Lanka's main opposition United National Party has despite its rightwing heritage pragmatically emphasized the need to halt war.

Comparing the UNP to the ruling People's Alliance the terrorist group, LTTE charged that the "Sinhala supremacists" led by the ruling People's Alliance of President Chandrika Kumaratunga are extending the alluring promise of military victory over them.

A day before, November 27, LTTE supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran, delivering his heroes day message said lifting of the ban on his organization is a necessary pre-condition for the LTTE to participate in the peace talks.

However, while requesting people to vote for the UNP and declaring that the UNP had decided to halt the war the editorial did not make it clear whether the UNP leader Ranil Wickramasinghe has already decided to lift the proscription of the LTTE if he came to power, since it had been laid as a pre-condition.

" A key aspect of ...equality is," said the rebel journal editorial, "the recognition of the LTTE as the sole authentic leadership of the Tamils. Hence, the de-proscription of the LTTE remains a justifiable pre-requisite for peace talks. President Kumaratunga' S fanatical opposition to lifting the ban and her government's pursuit of similar proscriptions of the organization abroad are in keeping with her determination to thwart Tamil political aspirations."

The editorial warned that the consequences for the island will be necessarily severe if the Sinhala community returned a government with a mandate of war. Earlier the ruling People's Alliance was identified as such a government.

The LTTE journal editorial emphasizing the selection of the UNP said, "The prerequisite is that there is genuine will and determination on the part of the Sinhala leadership for negotiated settlement. Selecting that leadership is , however, the responsibility of the Sinhala people,"

On a final warning not to elect the PA the Tamil Tiger journal's editorial said, "On December 5 the Sinhala people will empower their leadership to either seek lasting peace with the Tamils or to wage unrelenting war against them. Once that decision becomes clear, the Tamil leadership will, no doubt, respond appropriately."

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